Zombie Paradise 3
by Sovereign64
Summary: AU Former US marine Yuri Lowell is sent to Cocoon Island to rescue a scientist named Estellise Sidos Heurassein who is believed to have found a cure to the contagious Rosch virus. When their lives are being threatened, can they work together to fight through hordes of infected and escape the island alive? Welcome to Cocoon Island...a paradise to die for. YuriXEstelle COMPLETE
1. Yuri Lowell

**Sovereign: Welcome readers to Zombie Paradise 3! And wow, how long has it been since the last story? *Checks profile* Wow, six years? I didn't know it's been that long. This is a story that I actually wanted to write shortly after the second story, but because of my waning interest in the zombie genre over the years, I never got around writing the third installment...until now.**

 **After so long, I finally decided it's time for me to revisit this project and help it see the light of day. So here it is everyone, the third installment of my zombie series after six long years!**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE: Yes, this is the third installment of my series. But the good news is, you DON'T really have to read the previous two stories before jumping into this one. You can straight away read it without any confusion. Enjoy!**

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 _ **Zombie Paradise 3**_

 _ **Chapter 1: Yuri Lowell**_

 **January 2017**

 **Charleston, West Virginia**

Inside a bar, Yuri Lowell stood behind the counter cleaning a beer mug with a cloth. He is dressed in a black sleeveless vest with a red ribbon around his collar, a white long-sleeved shirt underneath it, black pants and black shoes and his hair is tied to a long ponytail. After he's done, he puts the cloth aside and placed the now clean mug underneath the counter. He looks up and sees his surroundings.

The bar is filled with patrons doing all sorts of things such as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, playing snooker at the nearby pool table or simply laughing and shouting profanities throughout the night.

Yuri grumbles as he closes his eyes. He honestly doesn't like this job, but he had no choice. He used to be a marine serving for the United States military and was deployed into Afghanistan two years ago. But his experience over there changed his life forever. Even after returning home and recovering from his trauma, he is still badly affected and reminded of his wartime past. He was no longer a happy and carefree man like he used to be. His wartime past affected his behavior. He could no longer socialize well with others and as a result, he is constantly changing and switching jobs because his behavior towards other people around him is always bad.

Yuri's thoughts are interrupted when he heard knocking on the counter. He opens his eyes, turns his head and sees a muscular man with short white-hair and wears a pair of glasses, a light blue shirt, tan pants and brown shoes, sitting four feet away from him on the left, smiling at him.

"Hi there. You seem like a fine man." The man said. Yuri watches as he digs into his pocket and takes out a fifty-dollar note. "Tell you what. If you can beat me, you can have fifty bucks."

A smirk appears on Yuri's face as he nods his head. "You're on."

The long-haired bartender adjusts his sleeves as he walks out from behind the counter and heads over to the man, who places his fifty-dollar note on the table. The patrons turn their heads and notice that an arm-wrestling match is about to happen, which got all of them interested and excited.

As Yuri sat next to the muscular man, the patrons start hooting and cheering as they walk over to them to watch their upcoming match.

Yuri and the man stare boldly at each other before they firmly place their elbows on the table and grab each other's right hand.

A second later, both men tighten their grips around their hand and grit their teeth. They transfer every ounce of strength they have inside their bodies to their hands, trying to overwhelm the other to pin the other's arm onto the surface of the table. The patrons hooted rambunctiously as they watch the ongoing display.

Sweat trickle down the sides of both men's heads as they continue staring at each other with their eyebrows furrowed while also trying to overcome the other person's strength.

But eventually, Yuri lets out a yell as he successfully pin the man's arm onto the table and wins the match. The patrons who were rooting for Yuri cheered wildly while the others who were supporting the other man groan and whine disappointingly.

Yuri gets up from his chair and pumps his fists into the air triumphantly. He smiles and shakes hands with the nearby patrons who supported him. He then turns back to the table and places his hand on the fifty-dollar note.

Suddenly, the white-haired man swiftly grabs Yuri's hand and ferociously bites it. Yuri lets out a yell of pain as the man sinks his teeth onto his skin. The patrons gasp and widen their eyes in shock as they see this happen. The bartender in response curls his other hand into a fist and swings it across the man's face, breaking his glasses in the process and sending him rolling onto the floor.

Yuri snorts as he grabs the fifty-dollar note and puts it into his pocket. As he turns around and walks away, the man quickly gets up from the floor and yells as he tackles Yuri to the floor from behind. The man turns him around and proceeds to punch the bartender's face repeatedly. The patrons could do nothing but froze and watch Yuri getting beaten mercilessly in horror.

The man was about to deliver another punch to Yuri's cheek, but suddenly, the bartender swiftly grabs the man's arm, stopping his continuous beating. Yuri's eyes are burning with rage as he yells furiously and slams his forehead against the man's face, breaking his nose in the process. He gets up and pushes the man until he slams him against the wall. Yuri proceeds to let loose a series of punches and kicks all over the man's face and torso.

"Kick his ass!"

"Show this asshole what you're made of!"

The patrons yell words of encouragement to Yuri as they watch him mercilessly punish the man for what he did to him.

A few more seconds later, three bouncers quickly arrive at the scene. One of the bouncers grab Yuri behind from him and pushes him away while the other two bouncers clasp the white-haired man's arms and escort him out of the bar.

"Time's up for you! Get out!" One of the bouncers yelled at the white-haired man. When the fight is officially over, the patrons moan in disappointment as they turn around and return to what they were originally doing.

Yuri walks over to the counter, places his hands on the table and lets out a sigh. The manager angrily walks over to him and slams his fist on the counter, causing Yuri to turn his head and look up at him.

"I cannot believe this, Yuri! I hired you only two days ago and you already caused a ruckus here!" The manager yelled. "I'm docking your pay!"

The manager then turns around and furiously walks his way back to his office upstairs. Yuri's shoulders sagged as he lowers his head and stares back at the table. He unties his ribbon, letting his long dark purple hair hang down freely before rubbing his cheek where the white-haired man repeatedly punched at.

As Yuri is staring at the table, a man walks over to him and stood next to him. "Rough night?" The man spoke.

"Isn't it fucking obvious?" Yuri replied in annoyance.

The man places his hands behind his back before speaking again, "Sorry to bother you but…are you Yuri Lowell?"

Yuri arches an eyebrow before turning his head and finally takes a look at the man who is speaking to him. He sees that the man has shoulder-length brown hair, purple eyes and dressed in a neat black suit with a blue necktie and white collar shirt underneath it, black pants and black shoes.

"How do you know my name?" Yuri asked, adjusting his body and stood in front of the man.

"My boss told me about you." The man replied as he stuffs his hands into his pockets. "And I am sent to come find you."

"Why is your boss interested in me? I'm just a low-life bartender." Yuri asked as he places his hands on both sides of his hip.

"Were you always a bartender?" The man said as a smirk rose to his lips. "According to your biography, you were a former U.S. marine, stationed in Afghanistan from February to June 2015. You were ranked sergeant and also a cavalry scout. Your actions in Afghanistan saved some lives and help the Afghan government and the Resolute Support win battles against enemy forces. And after you were discharged, you spent the last two years doing a series of odd jobs, with this bartending business being your latest."

Yuri stares at the man in bewilderment. "How…do you know all of this?" He inquired incredulously.

The man looks around for a moment before turning back to Yuri. "Mind if we take a seat and have a drink?" He asked.

"Sure." Yuri said as he nods his head. He gestures the man to take a seat in front of the counter. As the man sits down, Yuri goes over to the back of the counter. He takes two empty glasses from under the counter and takes them out. He places them below the dispenser and fills both glasses up with beer. After filling them up, Yuri grabs both glasses and walks out from behind the counter and goes over to the man. He sat next to the man and places one glass of beer in front of him. The man smiled as he grabs his glass that Yuri has offered him.

"My apologies, Mr. Lowell. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Nolan Mathias." The man extends out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mathias." Yuri said, grabbing his hand and shaking it. Both men then take a sip of their beer before staring back at each other. "Would you mind telling me why your boss is interested in me, so much as to send you all the way out here to this shit hole to come look for me?"

Nolan places his glass on the table before staring boldly at him. "My boss has a job for you." He said. "As I've said before, you are a former cavalry scout. Your specialty is what makes you the perfect person do this job."

Yuri also places his glass down on the table before leaning forward. "And what is this job all about?"

Nolan takes a deep breath before giving his explanation, "Have you ever heard of the two islands that were quarantined by our government?"

"Yes. I have." Yuri narrows his eyes. "If I'm not mistaken, the names of the two islands were Cocoon Island and Stellar Island, am I right?"

Nolan nodded. "Then I'm sure you've also heard about the rumors that the public are making, right?"

"Yeah, people are saying that the US government quarantined these islands because of a virus that we still don't know what it is even to this day. Nobody ever visited either island since and I've heard rumors that some people did escape and have been rescued before the quarantine is placed but these survivors refused to comment and they all stayed a very low profile since." Yuri said. "Do you know what this virus that our government is containing is?"

Nolan frowned deeply and places his hands on his lap. "The only way I can tell you is if you will accept the job that my boss would like to offer you. And let me warn you, this job is extremely dangerous and my boss and I cannot guarantee your safety."

"I've been through worse." Yuri shrugged. "What is it?"

"My boss wants to send you to Cocoon Island to find someone." Nolan said.

Yuri remained silent for a moment before a small grin appears on his face. "That's it? That doesn't sound very dangerous to me." He pauses for a moment to turn back to his glass and take another sip of his beer. After doing so, he turns back to Nolan. "Sorry sir, but I'm sure your boss can always find another soldier to do a mission like that, right? Hell, even the SWAT team can do that. It doesn't have to be the military."

"May I remind you the seriousness of this mission, Mr. Lowell?" Nolan asked with his eyes narrowed. "The lives of thousands of infected people who are still trapped on both islands for the last seven years and even the lives of everyone in our world who has not made contact with this virus that our government is containing depend on the success of this mission. If you accept this mission and succeed, you can save _billions_ of lives."

Yuri throws his head back and bursts out laughing. He regains his composure after a few seconds and his grin widens. "Man, I think that man earlier must have punched me too hard."

"This is no joke, Mr. Lowell. And you _will_ take this seriously." Nolan demanded flatly. Yuri's smile disappeared instantly upon hearing his authoritative tone. Nolan takes a moment to calm down before continuing, "This virus has already fallen into the wrong hands _twice_. It was created by a terrorist named Yaag Rosch and he let the virus loose on Cocoon Island in January 2010. Then ten months later, a rogue soldier named Hades brought the virus over to Stellar Island and infected everyone there too. Thankfully, we have contained the virus for seven years now and there hasn't been another place caught by it since. And now, we believe that someone, this person that my boss and I want you to find, has found the _cure_. If we find this person, we can finally free everyone who had been trapped and quarantined on these islands for the last seven years." Nolan's eyes and tone both softened. "So please Mr. Lowell…please reconsider in accepting this mission."

Yuri sighs again and pulls some strands of hair away from his eyes. "I'm sorry but…after my time in Afghanistan, I'm truly done being a soldier." He paused for a moment. "It's funny. My childhood dream was always to become a soldier. But when I eventually do get my dream job, it ended up becoming my worst nightmare. Do you want to know why I left Afghanistan after only being stationed there for four months? Because I was traumatized…and I also lost hope. Every day, I see people, both my fellow soldiers and civilians, die in the battlefield. And even right now, the memories of seeing their corpses lying around still linger inside my mind. I even killed terrorists who have slaughtered innocents. But doing so made me fear for myself that I'll become a cold-blooded killer as well, just like them. Afghanistan is a country that has been suffering for the last sixteen years and I thought by now, our country would have done something. I thought by now, we would have brought them peace and stability. We won the first war in 2014, and then what happened? Another war broke out only four days later! Why? Because the people over there think violence is the only option to solve their problems. If we, human beings, believe that the only way to solve all the problems in the world is violence, then I've truly given up hope in humanity. And I'm done being a hero." After Yuri finishes his explanation, he turns away from Nolan, takes another sip of his beer and finishes consuming everything that was in his glass.

Nolan stares at Yuri silently for a moment before he clasps his hands together and frown. "What if I can make a promise to you?" He inquired.

Yuri widens his eyes upon hearing that. He places his now empty glass on the table and turns back to him. "What is that?" He asked.

"If you help us find this person on Cocoon Island, I'll reward you with something. Something that will change your life and in a long run, help you recover from your guilt and trauma." Nolan said.

"Seriously? You can do that?"

Nolan nods his head solemnly. "You have my word. Also, I appreciate you giving me your explanation why you left Afghanistan, and I really do have sympathy for you for what you've been through. As a fellow soldier myself, I know how it feels like seeing death in the battlefield and it's never comfortable to experience it. But…really think about it. This mission that my boss is offering you...why don't you see this as your second chance? Your second chance to be a hero, save lives, do the right thing…and prove that there is hope within humanity." Nolan turns away from Yuri for a moment to take a sip of his beer. Yuri watches in awe as Nolan drinks up his entire glass of beer in one sip. He places his empty glass on the table and lets out a sigh before turning back to Yuri. "Think about it. Either become a savior or continue staying here as a low-life bartender."

He then puts his hand into a pocket underneath his suit and takes out both a twenty-dollar note and a numbered card. He hands both items over to Yuri, who takes them from him. Nolan bows his head down to him. "Thank you for your time." He then gets up from his seat and Yuri watches him leave the bar.

After the man is out of his sight, Yuri turns his head back to the items he's holding in his hand. He puts away the twenty-dollar note into his pocket before looking at the card. He sees the telephone number printed on it and the bartender pondered. Should he accept this mission? Yuri always swore to himself that after his time in Afghanistan, he's done trying to be a hero. He's done trying to do something good for the world. He's done helping his country to win a war when ultimately, there's going to be more unrest, violence and suffering again after victory has been achieved.

But then, he thought about this person that Nolan and his boss are looking for. He imagines that this poor soul has been trapped on Cocoon Island for the last seven years. This person has found a cure that can free other people who are also trapped on the island with them. But there's no one in the world who would want to risk their life to rescue them. No one has the courage to enter a quarantined island to save a poor soul. But only he can. Only he has the skills to enter into a remote island to save someone. Just like how he is the only person courageous enough to enter enemy territory and gather valuable data for his fellow brothers-in-arms and save innocent civilians who were captured. He is the person's only hope for freedom.

Yuri grumbled as he rubs the back of his neck. Again, should he-

"Yuri! What are you sitting down there for?! Get back to work!" The manager shouted from his office at the second floor.

"YES SIR!" Yuri yelled in annoyance, turning his head to the direction of his office.

After hearing the office door shut, Yuri turns back to the card he's still holding in his hand and frowns. Yeah, he should accept this mission.

It's probably better than working in this shithole anyway.

 **END OF CHAPTER**

 **Sovereign: Be sure to leave a review! It will only take a minute.**


	2. Arrival

**Sovereign: I would like to thank SaRan1999, AquaBluey and Lexadant for reviewing this story. And special thanks to Crimson-Tuna-Sub on Deviantart for also checking out my story. Thanks guys!**

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 _ **Chapter** **2: Arrival**_

 _ **3 days later…**_

Yuri ties up the shoelaces on his military boots before looking up at Nolan who is sitting in front of him. The two men are currently sitting inside the back of an Osprey aircraft and heading towards Cocoon Island.

Yuri is now dressed in a navy blue long-sleeved military uniform, a black bulletproof vest with ammo pouches over it, a dark brown belt with a silver buckle around his waist, navy blue pants, black combat gloves, black kneepads and black military boots. He also has a black gun pouch strap around his right upper leg and his long hair is tied up at the tips with a dark yellow ribbon.

Nolan is dressed in the same outfit as Yuri's, but without the vest, kneepads and gun pouch.

"Yuri Lowell, thank you very much for accepting this mission. My boss appreciates it." Nolan said.

"My own boss is an asshole. So I don't have any choice." Yuri smirked.

"Can we get on with the briefing?" Nolan asked. Yuri nods his head in response. "Good. We're heading our way to Cocoon Island. In January 2010, a terrible virus known as the Rosch Virus was unleashed on the island. But five people successfully escape and return back to the States uninfected and in response, the U.S. government quarantined the island and it became off limits to the public since. But a month ago, on December 2016, our intelligence division picked up a signal from the island."

Nolan takes out a folded paper from his pocket. He unfolds it, revealing it to be a map of the quarantined island and shows it to Yuri. Yuri takes the map and sees a red circle drawn around a square on the southeast area of the island.

"The signal came from the area that is drawn on the map. It was not only an S.O.S. message, but also a message from a person claiming that a cure to the Rosch Virus has been found."

"Who is this 'someone' that your boss wants me to find?" Yuri inquired as he folds the map and puts it in his left pocket. "You still haven't told me his name."

"Not his. _Her_." Nolan now takes out a photo of the person whom Yuri is assigned to find. Yuri takes the photo and looks at it. It is a woman with pink shoulder-length hair and light blue eyes.

"She said her name is Estellise Sidos Heurassein." Nolan continued speaking and Yuri looks back up at him. "We know her because she used to work for us. She is a military scientist who was sent to Cocoon Island to study the virus. But for reasons we don't know, she never came back. For nearly seven years, we thought she was dead or infected. And now after so long, we were shocked to not only learn that she's still alive, but she also found a cure to the virus. And that's where you come in, Yuri. Your mission is to get down there to Cocoon Island, find her and help her get out of the island."

Yuri looks down at his vest and puts the photo of Estellise inside his right pocket. He lifts his head back up and boldly stares at Nolan. "I understand." He said solemnly.

Nolan leans forward and places his hand on his shoulder. "Be careful Yuri. If you ever come across any infected, kill them. Always do so by aiming for their heads. And no matter what, never _ever_ let them bite you. Not even a nibble. Once you get bitten, you're finished. Understood?" Nolan said, staring at Yuri with a serious glare.

Yuri went dead silent as he stares back at Nolan with his eyes widened and his mouth gaping slightly open. What Nolan just said to him actually brought chills down his spine. He had never felt so nervous and horrified in a long time.

After a minute of struggling, Yuri eventually managed to regain control of his vocal cords and asked, "How do I know if someone is infected?"

"You'll know when you see them." Nolan takes out one final object from his pocket, which is an earpiece. "Put this on. We'll communicate with each other through this." Yuri silently takes the earpiece and gently places it over his right ear. After putting it on, he takes a deep breath, clasps his hands together and looks back at Nolan. Then, they heard a radio static, causing both men to lift their heads up and stare at the speaker.

" _Sirs, we're approaching our destination in 5 minutes. Get ready."_ The pilot spoke through the speaker. He then hangs up the radio and both men look at each other again.

"Prepare yourself." Nolan said. Yuri turns his head and sees the cockpit door opening up. A soldier walks out through the door and goes over to him while carrying a parachute bag and a duffle bag. He places the duffle bag onto the floor and in front of Yuri's feet.

Yuri removes his safety belt, takes the bag and unzips it, revealing a machete which is currently sheathed inside a pouch, an M16A4 rifle, a Mossberg 500 shotgun, an M45 pistol, two grenades, shotgun shells and several magazines.

He begins his preparations. He takes the shotgun out and loads several shotgun rounds into it. After loading up his shotgun, he puts the remaining shotgun shells into the lower left pouch of his vest and then places the shotgun onto the back of his vest.

He now takes the M45 pistol out of the bag and unloads the magazine. After making sure the magazine is filled with bullets, he inserts it back into the pistol and pulls the top of it. He made sure the safety pin is on before standing up and inserting it into his gun pouch around his leg.

He kneels down and takes out the M16A4 rifle from the bag. He stands back up straight and looks through the optic installed on top of the rifle, making sure it is completely fine. Afterwards, he unloads the magazine and made sure it is filled with bullets. He then inserts the magazine back into the rifle and puts on the safety pin before securely placing it onto the back of his vest and next to his shotgun.

He kneels down again and puts the magazines for his M45 into the lower right pouch and the ones for his M16A4 rifle into the upper right pouch. He takes out the grenades and made sure the safety pins are on them. He then places the grenades securely onto the upper left pouch of his vest.

Finally, he takes out the machete from the bag. He stands back up and pulls the machete out of the pouch. He examines it for a moment and stares at his own reflection on its blade. Afterwards, he sheathes his machete back into the pouch and hangs it around the left side of his belt.

After he finished loading himself up with the weapons provided to him, he looks back at Nolan and nods his head. Nolan nods back at him.

" _We're approaching our destination in 1 minute! Opening the hatch now!"_

The main door slowly opens, letting a huge gust of wind blow into the aircraft and breeze through Yuri's long hair. The soldier hands him the parachute bag. He takes it and carries it on his back. After making sure the straps around his arms are tightened, he turns to the soldier and gave him a thumbs-up. The soldier nods his head and also gave him a thumbs-up.

Yuri turns back to Nolan whose hair is being blown by the strong winds.

"GOOD LUCK YURI LOWELL!" He shouted. Yuri responded by giving him a thumbs-up before he turns to the main door which is now fully open and takes a deep breath.

' _Here we go.'_

Yuri proceeds to sprint towards the open door and did a running jump. He jumps out of the aircraft and now finds himself plummeting through the sky in incredible speed.

He narrows his eyes, trying to get a clear vision and see through the clouds as he falls through them.

Eventually, the clouds clear away and Yuri's eyes widened as he sees what's below him. It was a small island filled with lush greenery. He could barely see some buildings and small roads built on it but they are sparse and only a handful of them. What's more noticeable to him is the sandy coastline surrounding the entire island.

Yuri dives himself toward the island. When he finds himself about 3000 feet above it, he quickly pulls the latch on his bag and unleashes his parachute. The parachute bursts out of his bag and Yuri felt himself being pulled back and forced into a sitting position. He clasps onto both levers and takes control of his parachute.

" _Yuri, can you hear me?"_ Yuri could hear Nolan's voice speaking through his earpiece.

Yuri carefully removes his right hand from his lever and answers his earpiece. "Yeah, I do." He replied.

" _I assume you're heading towards Cocoon Island. Are you?"_

"Yes I am."

" _Good. Have a safe landing. And we'll keep in touch."_ Nolan then hangs up the conversation.

Yuri grabs onto his right lever and sees himself falling towards the surface of the island. As he gets closer to the bottom, he sees the open grassy field below him and aims for it.

He steers himself and slowly descends to the ground. When he's only eight feet above the grassy field, he gets into a standing position and gently places his feet on the ground.

Once he landed on the ground safely, he removes his parachute bag and tosses it to the side. He turns his head to the side, making sure his rifle and shotgun are still securely hanging onto the back of his vest.

He draws out his rifle and turns back to the front. He looks around his surroundings and sees that the grassy field is empty. The trees are sparse from each other and there are no signs of any people or animals around. The place is eerily quiet.

Yuri frowns and holds onto his rifle tightly before muttering to himself.

"Welcome to paradise…or not."

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	3. First Encounter

**Sovereign: I would like to thank SaRan1999 and AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out this story too. Thanks guys!**

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 _ **Chapter 3: First Encounter**_

Yuri walked through the forest for the next fifteen minutes while listening to Nolan through his earpiece at the same time. During that time, he still had not encountered any sign of life. Not even a bird or a small creature during his walk through the forest. This place literally makes the Democratic Republic of Congo look like Kansas.

" _Alright Yuri, keep going straight and you will reach the location of Estellise's signal in five more minutes."_ Nolan instructed.

"So how did she end up on the island?" Yuri asked.

" _Didn't I already tell you back on the aircraft?" Nolan said, sounding peeved._

"You told me why, not how. And I would also like to know what other things happened after the virus spread throughout the island."

" _Right." Nolan calms himself down. "Three days after the incident, we sent her to the island along with 24 other scientists and 30 soldiers by air. But after ten months, we completely lost all contact with them."_

"Ten months?" Yuri asked incredulously. "Stellar Island was infected ten months later."

" _Yes. According to the people who miraculously escape Stellar Island uninfected, they say the virus was let loose there by Major Hades. Hades and another soldier named Major Shitou Yajima were originally stationed on Cocoon Island for ten months before returning to their home Stellar Island where the former brought the virus with him and spread it over there. Both soldiers have since perished there."_

"Don't you find it strange that Stellar Island was infected shortly after you lost contact with the people who are still on Cocoon Island?" Yuri narrows his eyes.

" _My boss and I think so too. That's why we have a theory that someone among the people we sent to Cocoon is also responsible for letting the virus loose on Stellar. Again, according to the survivors of the Stellar Island incident, Hades snuck into the experiment labs and collected samples of the virus, which he then brought it over there. Only the scientists had access to the labs, not the soldiers. Which would mean someone had secretly given Hades an access card into the experiment labs."_

"Who was in charge of the scientists and soldiers stationed on Cocoon Island?" Yuri inquired.

" _The scientists were led by Dr. Schwann Oltorain while the soldiers were led by Colonel Niren Fedrok."_

"Could it be either one of them who allowed Hades into the labs?"

" _We can't confirm anything until you've found any concrete evidence. If Estellise is still alive and you can find her, she may provide us answers."_

"Right." Yuri nods his head.

He eventually finds himself climbing up a hill. When he reaches the top, he looks down and sees a small village in front of him in the distance.

The buildings are boarded up and run down, obviously devoid of any life for years. The houses are falling down and the windows are overgrown with cobwebs. Yuri widens his eyes as he sees blood stains splattered on the walls and roads. Cars are also left behind or damaged and their paint job have decayed to rust.

" _You've found it. This place is the location of her signal."_

"How do you think she broadcasted her signal?" Yuri asked Nolan.

" _Do you see any signal towers or satellite dishes?"_

Yuri takes out his binoculars and examines the village. He carefully looks at each house. After looking at all of them, he confirms that there is no satellite dish placed on top of any of them.

"The houses don't have any satellite dishes." Yuri responded to Nolan.

" _What about a signal tower?"_

Yuri looks up and sees something behind a building that looks to be a church. He adjusts his vision of his binoculars and zooms in on the object behind it. Sure enough, it was a signal tower, but it has collapsed and the metal pillars that were supporting it were destroyed. The rest of the tower has fallen over and crashed onto a wooden house that had reduced to ruins.

"I found it, and it's destroyed." Yuri examines the ground below where the tower once was and he discovered scorched marks on it. "I believed the tower was bombed."

" _Do you see any explosion marks on the ground?" Nolan inquired._

"Yes." Yuri nods his head.

" _Hmmm…" Nolan murmured. "Then it means the tower was bombed recently."_

"Who could have done that?"

" _Don't know. Perhaps do some investigation. And remember, be careful of any infected."_

Yuri holds up his rifle and frowns deeply. He runs down the hill and made his way to the lifeless village.

When he arrived, he cautiously walks through the area. He aims his rifle at all directions as he maneuvers through the dusty streets. After making sure that there are no threats in sight, Yuri lowers his rifle and dashes his way to the church. He stops when he finds himself standing in front of the church doors. He places both hands on the doors and push them open.

As he opens the church doors, an eerily sound echoes the building. After fully opening the doors, he lets out a gasp and widens his eyes in horror. The walls and floors are stained with blood, bible books are littered on the floor and the wooden chairs are damaged. He slowly walked towards the middle of the church. Then, he heard a noise.

Yuri swiftly turns his head to the left and holds up his rifle. He sees a pastor at the doorway, slowly stepping out of the shadows and staggering towards him. Yuri sighs as he lowers his rifle.

"Sir. Are you al…right…" Yuri trails off when he realizes that the pastor coming towards him doesn't look natural.

The pastor has grey skin and yellow eyes. His head is tilted back and his mouth is gaping open.

"Ummm…father?" Yuri asked frowning as he slowly raises his rifle. "Are you okay?"

The pastor then slowly tilts his head forward. His eyes furrowed and his fingers start twitching.

"What the hell is wrong with you, father?!" Yuri yelled at the pastor.

" _Yuri! What is going on?!" Nolan demanded._

Suddenly, the pastor lets out a loud and ferocious roar. He advances towards Yuri who is still hesitant in shooting him. But when the pastor is near him, Yuri lets out a yell as he swings his rifle across his face, sending him falling and smashing his head against the side of a nearby wooden bench.

" _That sound! Yuri! You've encountered an infected person! SHOOT THEM!" Nolan cried in horror._

Yuri widens his eyes in horror and places his hand on his earpiece. "What?! Why?!"

" _Yuri, listen to me! I know they're infected and they were normal humans before. But you must shoot them to protect and save yourself! It's self-defense and there's no other way!"_

As Yuri is listening to Nolan on his earpiece, the pastor slowly rises up from the floor and turns his head back to Yuri, completely ignoring the blood dripping down from the wound on his forehead.

"Nolan, I can't shoot a civilian!" Yuri cried frantically as his heart pounds. "I can't-"

Yuri swiftly turns his head back to the infected pastor as he lets out another roar. The pastor charges at him again and he reaches out his hands at him.

"NO!" Yuri holds up at his rifle and pulls the trigger.

 _ **BANG!**_

He watches with his eyes wide as he manages to fire a bullet through the pastor's forehead, making him throw his head back and his body slumps onto the floor. Yuri lowers his rifle as he stares at the infected person, now lying motionlessly on the floor. He shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe he has shot a civilian.

" _Yuri, are you there?" Nolan asked._

Yuri remains silent for a moment before answering, "Yeah, I'm still here."

" _You did good. You shot him."_

"What the fuck does that supposed to mean?!" Yuri bellowed, feeling both shocked and angry at Nolan's response.

" _But Yuri, once you're done investigating the area, you have to get out of there immediately. I don't know if the noise you've made will attract anyone."_

"What do you mean?"

" _These infected are very sensitive to sound. And since you're in a deserted area, that shot you made may have created a huge echo. It will surely attract them."_

Yuri narrows his eyes, distorting his face into a scowl. He still feels extremely confused over what he had just experienced. "Once I'm done, you _will_ give me a full explanation on these infected. You hear me?!"

" _I will. Just finish your investigation and get out. Make it quick, I don't think you have much time."_

Yuri then hangs up his earpiece and holds up his rifle up again. He carefully walks through the church, looking out for any more infected that may appear out of nowhere.

Suddenly, Yuri heard footsteps coming from behind. He quickly turns around and sees an infected coming towards him. He tries to shoot but the infected grabs him by his arms. He tries to bite him but Yuri quickly kicks his stomach with his knee, causing the infected to release his right arm.

Yuri quickly uses his right hand to pull out his pistol from his gun pouch and holds it in front of the infected's face. He pulls the trigger and the entire right side of the infected's head is blasted off. Yuri then pushes away the now lifeless infected and he falls onto the floor with a thud.

He turns around and sees two more infected running out from the doorway where the pastor originally came out from. He holds up his pistol, managing to shoot down one of them. But the other one is still moving and now near him.

Yuri uses his rifle which he is holding with his left hand and swings it across the infected's face, knocking him down to the floor. He quickly stood above the infected and it lets out a ferocious roar at him before Yuri aims his pistol at him and fires a single shot through his forehead, instantly killing it.

When the fight is over, Yuri lets out a sigh before putting his pistol back into his gun pouch. He couldn't believe it. He can't believe he's killing people again. It's like Afghanistan all over again. And he fears the more people he kill, the more closer he is to becoming a serial killer, just like the terrorists he fought against back there.

Yuri lifts his head up to the front. He carries his rifle with both hands and goes through the doorway where the pastor and the two infected originally came out from. He enters a completely empty store room. He sees that there are many sleeping bags laid on the floor and they are covered in blood stains.

He turns back to the door which has a huge hole smashed through the middle and there are wooden pieces laid on the floor and inside the room.

Yuri lowers his head and sighed. There were originally survivors here but they failed to defend themselves and have gotten themselves killed or infected.

He shakes his head and regains his focus on his objective. He turns around and sees a door at the other end of the room. He lowers his weapon and runs over to the door.

He opens it and finds himself stepping out of the church and into a grassy field. Right in front of him is the fallen signal tower.

Yuri walks over to the burnt marks located below the destroyed pillars. He kneels down and sees some pieces on it. He picks up a piece and sees the words 'C-4' printed on it. Yuri narrows his eyes. Estellise's signal came from the tower. But now the tower is destroyed. And apparently its destruction was caused by C-4 explosives.

Could that possibly mean Estellise destroyed the tower? But why? Why would she destroy the tower right after making contact with the outside world? If she hadn't destroyed the signal tower, she can continue keeping in touch with the military back on mainland America or contact and find any other possible survivors on this island.

' _I guess the only way I'll know the real reason is to find her.'_ He thought.

Yuri stood up and holds up his rifle. He continues walking forward-

 _ **THWACK!**_

Yuri instantly froze and snaps his eyes open. He looks up and sees the top of the building that's in front of him. He looks through the windows and could barely see a large desk falling down behind the building.

Suddenly, he yelped as something wraps around his right foot, sends him falling on the ground on his back, dragging him towards the building and lifts him up into the air. The back of Yuri's head slams onto the building's wall, knocking him out cold. When the desk reaches the ground, it smashed into pieces, and the wire wrapped around it is released. It sends Yuri plummeting through the air and he lands back on the ground, flat on his face with a thud.

" _Yuri? What happened?! YURI!"_ Nolan yelled, hearing all the commotion that's going on. But Yuri didn't answer as he has lost his consciousness and completely pass out.

* * *

For a moment, Yuri groggily opens his eyes and sees himself being dragged through the floor. He barely looks up and sees a person grabbing his right foot and drags him through the road. He couldn't see how the person looks like, only their back.

The person then drops his foot and opens the back of a pickup truck. The person turns around and picks Yuri up by his arm, carrying him up to his feet. Yuri then finds himself being roughly pushed into the back of the pickup truck. His stomach made contact with the truck, nearly knocking out the breath from his lungs. He lets out a grunt from the shock and pain of the sudden impact.

When he finds himself now lying on the back of the truck, the person got on board. It kneels down and sees the earpiece on Yuri's ear. It removes the earpiece and places it on the floor, right in front of Yuri's eyes. Yuri sees the person holding their knife up and above the earpiece.

"No!" Yuri managed to croak but the person brought down their knife and slices the earpiece in half, completely destroying it. The person puts away its knife and cups Yuri's chin with their hand. It lifts his head up, making Yuri come face-to-face with his mysterious captor. Yuri's vision became clearer and he widens his eyes as he stares at the mysterious person.

A woman. Pink hair. Light blue eyes.

There's no mistaking who Yuri's captor is.

"If you turn out to be one of them, I swear…" The woman said icily to him with an ugly scowl. "I will kill you."

She removes her hand from Yuri's chin and stood up. Yuri looks up to see the woman lifting her foot up and without any warning, brings it down onto Yuri's face.

And the soldier finds himself passing out once more.

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	4. Estelle

**Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey and SaRan1999 for reviewing, Telitah for following and Crimson-Tuna-Sub on Deviantart for checking out this story. Thanks guys!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4: Estelle**_

Yuri slowly woke up from his unconsciousness. His vision was groggy at first, groaning as he slowly opens his eyes and lifts his head up. He attempts to move his arms, but quickly found that he can't because he felt them being restrained. He squinted as he began to regain full consciousness. Eventually, he regains his vision and finds himself sitting in the middle of a dark, empty room.

He vividly remembered being captured and brought into a pickup truck. After that, he got to see the face of his captor and immediately recognizes who she is. Estellise.

There's no mistaking at all that it was Estellise who captured him and brought him into his place. But why? Why did she captured him and destroyed his earpiece, completely cutting his communication with Nolan? He lets out a sigh. The only way he's going to know is to go out of here and find her. Hopefully, she won't try to kill him and let himself explain that he's here to help her.

Yuri looks down and sees that his arms are being tied around the back of the wooden chair he's currently sitting on by ropes. He also sees that all of his pockets on his vest are opened and the ammunition and grenades that were inside them are gone. He turns his head and sees that the pistol is missing from his gun pouch around his right leg. He turns to the left and sees that his machete has also been removed from his pouch. He tries to move his wrists and he felt that they are being tied by another rope. He then tries to move his legs but they are also restrained and being tied to the legs of the chair by ropes too.

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and leans himself forward. It looks like he doesn't have any other choice. He abruptly throws himself back which causes himself and the chair he is sitting on to fall over. The wooden chair smashed into pieces and Yuri winces and closes his eyes in pain as the back of his head hits the ground.

When he opens them, he slowly stands up without using his hands and the ropes that were originally tied around his legs and arms fall freely to the ground. Only his wrists are still being restrained.

He looks around the room and sees that it's completely empty. The only thing that resembles an object is the wooden door in front of him. Yuri takes a deep breath once again. If he can't open the door because his hands are tied, then he'll just have to knock it down.

He bends his body forward and stood still for a moment. After a while, he charges towards the door and slams his head and torso against it, knocking the door down. He finds himself falling down and landing on top of the now broken door.

Yuri groans as he slowly staggers up from the floor again and looks up. He finds himself standing in a corridor with fluorescent lighting. Upon looking at the design of the corridor, he can instantly tell that this building is a hospital. Or it used to be. The corridor was a huge and horrifying mess. At the left side, there is a trolley bed that has fallen over and both the walls and floor are filled with blood stains and debris.

He cautiously walks down the corridor. He looks at the doors on both sides. Some have blood stains splattered on them while some have gigantic holes burst through them.

As he walks further down, he sees the reception desk at the left side. Papers are scattered along the desk and across the floor and the chair where the receptionist originally sat has fallen over and stained with blood. He also notices some footprints on the floor, not made from dirt, but by blood.

Yuri was sickened by what he sees. It actually reminded him of one of the terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan which he and his squad broke into, except this looks much worse and gruesome.

He continues walking down the corridor until he arrived at a pair of huge wooden doors. He slowly pushes through them and enters the waiting area where he sees even more fallen chairs scattered everywhere. The walls and floor are again stained with blood. He turns his head to the wall and sees a blood smeared handprint.

Yuri held back the urge to throw up and continue walking forward. He pushes through another pair of wooden doors and he now enters the Intensive Care Unit area. He turns his head to the right and widens his eyes in horror.

It was an open area with six beds placed in the same room. There are dead infected people strapped to the beds with leather belts around their wrists, waists and ankles. Their eyes are rolled back and have bullet-holes shot squarely through the middle of their foreheads.

Did Estellise really did all of this?

He turns his head back to the front as he continues walking forward. He now walks over to the room beside the open area. He looks through the glass sliding door and sees a body strapped to the bed inside the room. Behind the bed were two shelves filled with several medicine bottles and chemical flasks.

To his surprise and horror, this body isn't like the infected bodies he saw earlier. This body isn't gray but rather in its normal pale flesh skin tone. This person is actually a normal human being and completely free of any symptoms of being an infected. The horrifying part however is that just like the bodies he saw earlier, it had a bullet-hole shot through the middle of his forehead.

Who killed him? Is it Estellise? If so, why? Why would she kill someone who isn't infected by the Rosch virus?

He turns his head and sees that at the left side of the room, there is a table that has an oven and a tape recorder placed on one side and a sink built into it on the other. Above the table is a huge whiteboard with several photos pasted on it. The photos seem to be post-mortem snapshots of the faces of many infected people who have been strapped to the same bed, and the last photo is a snapshot of the same person who is currently lying dead inside the room right now.

Does that mean the person currently strapped to the bed was actually cured by Estellise, only to be shot by her afterwards? Why would she do that?

Yuri inches towards the glass door, trying to take a closer look at the photos when suddenly, he heard a click. Yuri swiftly turns his head and sees Estellise pointing his own pistol at him. He froze as he sees the icy glare on her face.

"What the hell are you doing outside your room?" She asked icily.

"Ma'am…" Yuri said. "I can expl-"

Estellise lets out an angry yell as she abruptly charges towards Yuri and tackles him. She pins Yuri against the wall behind him and places the pistol under his chin. Yuri breathes heavily as he stares down at Estellise in sheer shock.

"Who are you?! Tell me!" Estellise demanded.

"I'm Yuri Lowell! I'm here to rescue you, Estellise!" Yuri immediately answered.

"How do you know my name?!" Estellise bellowed.

"The people who sent me told me about you!" He yelled back.

"Who sent you?" She narrows her eyes.

"Nolan Mathias!" Yuri replied.

"Are you sure it's not Alexei Dinoia?" Estellise asked coldly.

Yuri stares back at her wordlessly. "Who's Alexei?" He asked incredulously.

Estellise continues glaring at him for a moment before she finally removes the pistol from under Yuri's chin and backs away from the soldier. "I believe you. Judging by your expression, I believe that you're not one of his men. But doesn't mean I won't continue keeping a close eye on you." She said. She holds up the pistol at Yuri again and moves to the side. "Move."

Yuri had no choice but to oblige. He walks forward and after he passes by her, Estellise stood behind him and she places the pistol on his back. "Keep moving." She said flatly. Yuri then continues walking forward and makes his way out of the ICU room with Estellise closely following him from behind. They both reenter the waiting area.

"Stop." Estellise ordered and the two stop at their tracks. "Turn right." Yuri turns to the right and sees a staircase leading to the bottom floor. "Move!"

Yuri then makes his way to the staircase and slowly walks down the stairs. Estellise continues following him closely from behind. Yuri tries to remain calm. Hopefully, he will later be given an opportunity to explain to Estellise that he really isn't her enemy.

When they reach the bottom, they arrived at the foyer where there is more blood stains splattered on the floor and chairs fallen over and placed everywhere. The reception desks are completely empty and there are also empty pill bottles and lids left aside on both the desks and floor.

"Keep moving. I'm getting hungry." Estellise said, pressing Yuri's pistol against his back. She escorts Yuri to the back of the reception desks and over to a door located behind them.

While still pointing the pistol at Yuri, Estellise turns the door knob and opens the door, leading to a small room with a dining table, four chairs and fridge inside.

"Get in." Estellise said. Yuri steps into the room and she closes the door behind her.

"Would you mind cutting these ropes around my wrists?" Yuri asked.

"Why the hell should I do that?" Estellise asked glaring.

"I swear…I won't hurt you." Yuri said with his tone softening.

"I still have your gun in my hand. If you ever try to lay a finger on me, I will shoot you." Estellise then puts Yuri's pistol into the pocket of her lab coat. She takes out a pocket knife and places it on top of the ropes tied around Yuri's wrists. Yuri stood still as Estellise starts cutting the ropes.

"Tell me, Estellise. Have you been staying in this facility?" Yuri asked.

"Yes. For a very long time." Estellise replied, not looking up at him and focusing on cutting the ropes. "I don't know how long."

"Seven years." Yuri said.

Estellise widens her eyes and stops for a moment. She looks up at Yuri and asked incredulously, "Seven years? It's been that long?"

"The virus hit this place in 2010. Now, it's the year 2017." Yuri said, turning his head and looking back at her.

"Wow." Estellise lowers her head. "Time flies." She continues cutting the ropes and said, "Also sir, just call me Estelle."

"Estelle?"

"Yes. It's what my fellow scientists usually refer me as and I'm used to it."

"Very well…Estelle." Yuri said, turning his head back to the front.

When Estelle finally cuts off the ropes, she quickly drops her pocket knife, draws out the pistol and aims at Yuri's back again. Yuri slowly raises up his hands.

"I told you Estelle. I won't hurt you. Because I'm your ally." Yuri said.

Estelle sighs and lowers the pistol. "You may take a seat." She said as she puts the pistol back into the pocket of her coat. Yuri turns to the table next to them. He grabs a chair and sits down while Estelle goes to the back of the room and heads to the fridge. She opens it, revealing several potatoes inside it.

"Do you eat potatoes?" She asked.

"Yes I do." Yuri said. "And don't tell me that's all you eat for the last seven years."

"Unfortunately yes." Estelle said dully as she grabs two potatoes and closes the fridge. She turns to Yuri. "And if you're wondering how I get them, there's a field behind the building. I grow and harvest them every day. And don't worry, they're not cold. The fridge isn't connected to a socket. I just use it to store them."

She goes over to the table and takes a seat. She extends a potato to Yuri, who takes it from her. "Bon appetit." She deadpanned before she starts eating her own potato.

Yuri takes a moment to look at her. She clearly looked like she hadn't had a decent shower for years. Her pink hair had no brilliant sheen and its dull tone reminded him of the color of rust. Also, her eyeballs are horribly sunken. Ugly gray bags are sagging underneath her light blue eyes, as if the girl had been without a decent amount of sleep for a long time.

He also looked at her clothes. Her white shirt, red tie around its collar, the white lab coat she wears over them, the dark red skirt, black stockings and black shoes are all dirty and covered with a diverse variety of blemishes and stains, making it clear that her clothes haven't been washed for years.

She may not be an infected, but she sure does resemble one.

Yuri couldn't help but feel pity and sympathy for her. She has still trapped on this island for seven years now and how she wish she can return to the mainland and experience peace and freedom again.

After swallowing her food, Estelle looks up at him. "You said your name is…Yuri Lowell, am I right?"

"Oh." Yuri snaps out his thoughts. "Yes. You're right."

"Nice to meet you, Yuri. It's been a while since I actually met another human being." She paused and shrugs her shoulders. "A human who isn't infected, of course."

Yuri puts his potato aside before inquiring, "Estelle, may I ask you some questions?"

"Go ahead."

"Is it true that you found a cure?"

Estelle nods her head. "Yes. I did. Finally after seven years working on this damn island, I found it."

"And so you later contacted the US military through that signal tower back at the village. But were you the one who destroyed it?" Yuri asked.

"Yes, I did." She answered.

"Why would you do that?" Yuri arches an eyebrow.

"So that Alexei and his men won't track down my signal and find me after I do so. I had to contact the military back on mainland as quickly as possible."

"And what was that trap at the tower? The one which I activated and knocked me out?"

"I set up that trap too. Usually I use them to capture the infected and bring them to my lab. But for this case, if Alexei and his men actually do come and try to get me, I capture one of them first. But instead, I caught you. Sorry about your earpiece by the way. I thought you were one of his men after all."

"Speaking of the cure, back at the ICU room, I saw the body of an uninfected man. Was that man normal and free of symptoms because he was given the cure?"

"Yes." Estelle nods her head. "When I cured him, I was absolutely surprised. I'm surprised that I actually did it. I finally created the cure to the Rosch virus."

Yuri narrows his eyes. "And did you shoot him after curing him?"

Estelle's eyes grew cold. "Yes."

Yuri slams his fists onto the table immediately after getting his answer. "Why would you do that?!" He asked, raising his tone and sounding angry.

"Because I cannot let the cure fall into the wrong hands!" Estelle snapped. "Definitely not into Alexei's hands."

"Who's Alexei?" Yuri inquired, feeling that it's time to get the elephant out of the room.

Estelle puts down her potato and places her arms on the table. She pauses for a moment before looking back up at Yuri. "Colonel Alexei Dinoia…he's a god damn psychopath…and a monster. He killed…everyone I knew." Yuri notices that tears are starting to form in her eyes. "He gave an access card to a soldier, letting him into our experiment labs and steal samples of the virus."

"Hades…" Yuri uttered.

"Hades then gave a sample to Alexei and…" Estelle stops for a moment to take a gulp. She then struggles to continue explaining while suppressing her sobs. "We watched him…infect one of my friends and…she transformed right in front of us. She bites the nearest person…and then that person also turned and…and then everybody but me turn into…monsters…I managed to escape alive…and when I got out of the facility…I just kept running…and running…I never stop running…"

Upon finishing her explanation, Estelle hangs her head and closes her eyes, letting her tears finally pour out and roll down both sides of her face.

"Hey." Yuri whispered as he gently pats Estelle's arm. "It's alright." He paused for a moment before asking his next question, "Do you know what happened to Dr. Schwann Oltorain and Colonel Niren Fedrok?"

Estelle responded by shaking her head. "I don't know." She said barely above a whisper as she opens her eyes. "Everything happened so fast. And all I just want is to get out."

"And I assume after you got out, you came here and since then, you continue your team's mission to study the virus and eventually find a cure." Yuri said. Estelle nods her head. A wan smile appears on Yuri's face. "Your team would have been proud of you."

"Yeah. They would." Estelle uttered. She lifts her right hand up and wipes off the tears off her eyes

"Why is Alexei hunting you?" Yuri asked.

"I don't know." Estelle shrugged. "He's an unpredictable mad man. Probably for some reason has a grudge on us scientists and just wants to kill us all. Including me."

"Estelle." Yuri stares at Estelle boldly. The scientist looks up at him with red eyes and tearstained cheeks. "I am sent to this island to rescue you. And I promise you. I'm going to help you get out of this place. I will keep you safe. And I won't let Alexei find you."

Estelle silently grabs Yuri's left hand and tightens her grip around it. She and Yuri both stare squarely into each other's eyes.

"Promise me…you _will_ get me out of here alive." Estelle said to him flatly.

Yuri solemnly nods his head. "I will."

 **END OF CHAPTER**

* * *

 **Sovereign: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. This weekend, I'll be going on a holiday trip so expect the next update on May 10th. Until then, read and review!**


	5. Heading Out

**Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys! And yes, I'm a day late in updating this story. Sorry about that, guys.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5: Heading Out**_

Yuri and Estelle both walk over to the entrance of the hospital. They look through the glass doors and see that the sun is about to set. The two turn their heads and stare at each other for a moment before they look up, lift up their arms and slide down the shutter door together.

The two then walk their separate ways, helping to close every window and slide down the shutters at both left and right sides of the first floor of the hospital.

When they're done, they walk back to the staircase where they reunite.

"Come on, I'll escort you to my room." Estelle said, gesturing Yuri to follow her. The two silently walk up the stairs.

But not wanting to continue the awkward silence between them, Yuri decides to speak up. "So Estelle…you got anybody waiting for you back at the mainland?"

Estelle shakes her head in response. "No. I don't." She said.

"Really? Nobody?" Yuri asked, turning to the scientist.

"Not a single soul. My parents died together in a plane accident while I was still studying in university. I have no grandparents and siblings either." Estelle uttered.

"I'm really sorry to hear that." Yuri said apologetically.

"What about you?" Estelle inquired, turning to Yuri. "Do you have anyone back in the States?"

"No." Yuri replied. "My mother passed."

"Do you have a father?"

"No. I refuse to call the man who raised me as a 'father'. Let's just say he's the biggest bastard in the entire world and my main reason why I wanted to get the fuck out of my house and go to military school as soon as I turn 18."

"Harsh." Estelle said frowning.

"Yeah." Yuri sighed. The two find themselves back at the waiting area in the second floor. Estelle takes out the pistol from the pocket of her coat and Yuri immediately raise up his hands. "Seriously? You still don't trust me?"

"No." Estelle said. Yuri widens his eyes and lowers his hands as she extends out her arm and gestures him to take back his weapon. "I'm giving it back to you. And I'll give you the rest of your items tomorrow."

Yuri stares at Estelle and a smile sweeps across his face. "Thank you." He said before taking the pistol from Estelle's hand and places it back into his gun pouch.

"Come on, this way." Estelle walks pass Yuri and the soldier follows her from behind. She leads him back into the patient wards where Yuri was held as a prisoner before.

As the two walk down the corridors, Estelle continues the conversation between her and Yuri.

"So Yuri, what happened back in the mainland while I was gone?" Estelle inquired.

"You mean things that happened in America between 2010 to now?" Yuri asked.

"Yes."

Yuri rubs his chin before speaking to Estelle, "Are you in sports?"

"Kind of." Estelle shrugged.

"In 2016, the Chicago Cubs finally won both the National League Championships and the World Series." Yuri said.

"Really?" Estelle turns her head to look at Yuri over her shoulder with her eyes widened.

"Yup. Our favorite losers finally ended their National League and World Series droughts after 71 and 108 years. And the city of Chicago went wild. And I mean literally, the victory parade that was held there was massive." He said smiling.

"That's great to hear." Estelle said. "Now all we need is the Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup." The two chuckled before the scientist turns her head back to the front. "What else?"

"What are you really into?" Yuri asked.

"Movies. Who won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2010?" Estelle asked.

" _The Hurt Locker_ by Kathryn Bigelow." Yuri answered. Estelle sighs in relief upon hearing it.

"Thank God it's not James Cameron's _Avatar_. I hated that _Pocahontas_ ripoff." She deadpanned.

"Yeah, I wasn't invested in that movie too." Yuri said as a small grin appears on his face. "Back to sports, Japan won the 2011 Women's World Cup after beating the United States. But miraculously four years later, United States and Japan face off each other again the 2015 Women's World Cup, and this time, we won."

"Wow. Both Japan and the U.S. face each other in the finals in two World Cups in a row?" Estelle asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Stars aligned, right?"

"Uh-huh." Estelle nods her head.

"Also in 2014, our country has restored relations with Cuba. Both nations are finally getting along again." Yuri said.

"That's great. How's Fidel Castro doing now?"

"He died two years later in 2016."

"Oh." Estelle said awkwardly and paused for a moment. "Never mind that I asked then."

The two eventually find themselves standing in front of a door located at the very end of the corridor. Estelle opens the door and they both step into the room. Yuri sees that it's a wide room with four patient beds lined up in a vertical row. The mattresses on the beds are stained and have cuts and tears with pieces of cotton coming out of them. Then again, it's to be expected from beds that haven't been taken care of for seven years.

"My bed is the very last one. You can pick any of the other three beds." Estelle said to Yuri.

"Alright. I'll take the third one." Yuri said.

"Why?" Estelle asked, arching an eyebrow and placing a hand on the side of her hip.

"Because um…" Yuri uncomfortably brushes the back of his head. "I need to stick close to you."

Estelle narrows her eyes at him. "Yuri, we just met and introduce ourselves. Surely, we aren't already taking our relationship to the next level." She said.

"No! Of course that's not what I meant when I say that!" Yuri protested as his cheeks blush.

Estelle places her fist in front of her lips and coughed. "Relax Yuri. I was just pulling your leg."

Yuri stares back at her wordlessly for a moment before he burst out laughing. "Yeah…" He said when he regains control of himself. "I know that."

The two walk over to the beds and Yuri removes his pistol from his gun pouch and places it on the table in front of the bed he has chosen. Estelle goes over to her own bed and removes the blanket before she sits down. Yuri also sat down on his bed and unties the laces of his boots.

"So what's the plan tomorrow, Yuri?" Estelle asked as she removes her shoes.

"Well, our plan tomorrow is to find another communications tower. Is there?" Yuri inquired.

"There's a shopping mall about 5 miles from here." Estelle said as she now slowly removes her stockings. "Let's hope we can find some sort of radio or any communication device over there."

Yuri nods his head. "That's good. Good to know there's a ray of hope." He said as he gently places his boots on the floor before he proceeds to remove his socks.

After she finished removing her shoes and stockings, Estelle now lies down on her bed and places the blanket over her body.

"Yuri, have you ever eaten strawberry sorbets?" She asked while staring at the ceiling.

Yuri turns to Estelle as he removes the hair ribbon, letting his long dark purple hair hang freely. "Yeah. A long time ago. Sorry I don't eat desserts often but when I do, they taste great." He said.

"How do they taste like?"

"They taste sweet…cold…and juicy."

A wan smile sweeps across Estelle's face as she nods her head. "I miss eating them. They were always my favorite dessert." She said.

"When we get back to America, I'll rent a whole ice cream shop for you." Yuri said.

Estelle's smile widens as she places her hands on her chest. Yuri smiles at her before he lies down on his bed and places his blanket over his body.

"Yuri…" Estelle uttered. Yuri turns back to her.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Thank you…for helping me." She said.

Yuri turns to the ceiling and sighs. "You're welcome."

* * *

Yuri and Estelle woke up as soon as the sun rises. Yuri grabs his pistol and places it into his gun pouch. The two then got out of their room and head to the next room beside it. Estelle opens the door and reveals a metal locker inside the room. The two go over to the locker and Estelle opens it, revealing several guns, ammunition and equipment, including Yuri's own weapons which she removed from him yesterday and place them inside.

Yuri takes back his machete, M16A4 rifle, Mossberg 500 shotgun, grenades and ammunition and place them back into their respective pouches.

Meanwhile, Estelle takes a HK416 assault rifle and several magazines.

"Mind if I help carry your magazines for you?" Yuri asked.

"Sure." She said and she passes the HK416 magazines to him. Yuri takes them and places them into the lower right pouch of his vest.

"Let's take my pickup truck and drive ourselves to the mall." Estelle suggested.

"Good." Yuri said. He turns back to the weapons locker and grabs a jerrycan. "Before we go, there's one more thing we need to do."

* * *

Later, Yuri and Estelle make their way to the ICU area and enter the room beside the open area. Estelle removes the leather belts strapped around the dead person who she cured.

When she's done, Yuri wraps his arms around the corpse's armpits while Estelle wraps her hands around his legs. The two lift the body up from the bed and slowly carry it out of the ICU area. They then slowly carry the body down the stairs and eventually out of the hospital.

When they are outside the hospital, they gently place the body down on the ground. Yuri grabs a blanket which he took from the patient wards and places it over the body. When he's done, he now grabs the jerrycan and pours fuel all over the corpse.

He puts down the jerrycan and turns to Estelle. "He deserves a proper send-off." He said. Estelle nods her head before passing a cigarette lighter to him. Yuri lights up a flame and the two back away from the body. He tosses the lighter onto the blanket and instantly, huge flames engulf the body.

The two silently watch the burning of the body for a few seconds before they both turn to each other.

"Now then…" Yuri uttered. "Let's get going."

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	6. The Mall

**Sovereign: No guys, I'm not dead. And no, I'm not giving up on this story.** _ **Ever**_ **.**

 **I would like to thank AquaBluey and SaRan1999 for reviewing this story, gamedude2195 for favoriting this story, Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking it out and alphawolf2196 for sending me a nice message regarding this story. Thanks everyone!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6: The Mall**_

Yuri and Estelle walk to the back of the hospital where they find her pickup truck parked beside the potato field. Yuri walks over to the left side of the truck where the driver seat is. He opens the door and turns to Estelle. To his confusion, Estelle stares at him looking peeved.

"Is there something wrong?" Yuri asked.

"This is my truck so I should be the one who drives." Estelle said.

"Oh. Sorry, it's just that you're the VIP while I'm the guy who's here to protect you-" Yuri gets cut off when Estelle interrupts him.

"I've stayed alive on this island for seven years, Yuri Lowell. I can take care of myself." Estelle folds her arms.

Yuri sighs and nods his head. "Right." Estelle then goes over to her truck and got into the driver's seat. Yuri closes the door for Estelle before he goes around the truck and over to the other side. He opens the right door and sat on the passenger seat. After he closes the door, Estelle turns the ignition and starts the truck.

The two put on their seat belts before Estelle places a hand on the steering wheel. She pulls the lever and begins to drive. She drives around the hospital and onto the road.

Yuri looks out through the window as they make their way to the mall.

"It may take a while before we reach the mall." Estelle said with her eyes focused on the front of the road. "You can take a nap if you want."

"Oh no, it's okay." Yuri replied. "I can stay awake."

* * *

Estelle quietly continues driving down the road while Yuri sat next to her with his eyes closed and snoring. As they drove northwards, the terrain changed from a green grassy field filled with trees grown sparsely from each other into a rockier and low-lying swampier area. The area has several trees and flowers of all shapes and sizes and there were many streams and small lakes.

They drove on a bridge to go over a river. When they arrive at the other side, they drove into the town where the shopping mall is located.

"We're almost here, Yuri." Estelle said as she uses a hand to nudge Yuri's shoulder. Yuri woke up from his nap and wearily looks around. When he realizes that they are in the town, he picks up his rifle and vigilantly scans their surroundings.

The town is boarded up, run down and deserted, just like the last place which Yuri visited. But he could tell that this place is larger and used to be livelier.

There are various buildings such as bars, restaurants, shops and motels located on both sides of the road. But after the virus broke out, the town instantly transform from a tourist destination into a ghost town. All of its charm and personality are gone in an instant and nobody saw it coming.

Estelle continues driving northwards until finally, they arrived at a huge parking lot located at the end of the town. The parking lot is filled with all sorts of vehicles, both either wrecked or burned. Cars, trucks, vans and buses are either collided against each other or toppled over. Estelle manages to find an empty and intact parking lot in the middle of the wreckage. She drives the truck over to the lot and parks into it. When the vehicle comes to a complete halt, Estelle and Yuri step out of the truck. They close the doors and turned.

In front of them is their destination, the shopping mall. The mall is huge, probably having the length of four football fields and the width of three. The windows are dusty and have large cracks. The walls are overgrown with weeds and the paint has worn off over the years. Both the mall and the parking lot are eerily silent.

"We should go inside through the back. It's not wise to go through the front." Yuri said to Estelle.

"Right." Estelle nods her head in agreement as she readies her rifle. The two leave the parking lot and walk to the back of the mall. When they arrive at the back, they see a huge pair of doors at the middle of it with garbage bags piled up at both sides.

The two walk their way to the doors. When they arrived at the doors, Yuri holds up his arm in front of Estelle, gesturing her to step back. Yuri turns back to the doors and places his hands on them. He pushes them open and he enters the mall.

"Yuri!" Estelle suddenly screamed.

Yuri turns his head and an infected roars as he grabs him and pins him to the wall. He tries to bite him but Yuri quickly draws out his machete and stabs through his neck. Estelle aims her rifle at the side of the infected's face and fires a shot. Yuri closes his eyes and turns his head away as his head is shot off and its blood splattered on his face.

Yuri wipes off the blood from his face and turns to Estelle.

"Thanks." He said. Estelle nods her head in response before she turns around and closes the doors behind her.

Yuri puts his machete back into his pouch. He looks around and sees that they are currently inside a kitchen. Some frying pans and butcher knives are laid on the floor and stained with blood. Some more blood is splattered across the kitchen floors.

"Let's keep moving. I hope we can find some sort of device for communication somewhere in this mall." Yuri said as he holds up his rifle.

"Security guards have radios. So we should head to the security office." Estelle said.

"Right. The security guards' office it is."

The two cautiously head their way out of the kitchen. They push open the kitchen doors and step into the dining area of restaurant. Yuri and Estelle gasp and widen their eyes as they see about five infected staggering around the area.

The two quietly go behind a nearby dining table and hide behind it. They are relieved that their opening of the doors did not attract the attention of the infected.

"I highly recommend we take them out quietly without firing a single bullet. These infected are extremely sensitive to sound." Estelle whispered to Yuri. "If we fire our guns, we will only attract more."

"Got it." Yuri said. He places his rifle onto his back and unsheathes his machete. "Stay here."

Estelle watched as Yuri slowly stood up and quietly walks over to the nearest infected. When he finds himself standing behind her, he stabs his machete through the back of her head and out through her mouth. He then carefully lays the infected onto the floor and removes his machete. He swings it to flick off the blood from its blade.

He goes over to the table beside him and hides behind it. He looks up and sees another infected. He is mindlessly staggering towards the table he's hiding behind. When the infected stood in front of the table, Yuri stood up and stabs the machete through his forehead. The infected's eyes roll back and Yuri removes his machete. The infected falls over and slumps onto the floor.

Yuri looks to the front and sees that there are three infected remaining in the dining area. He sees an infected just standing at the right corner of the restaurant and staring into space. He kneels down and chooses to take him out next. He slowly lies down and quietly crawls through the floor.

When he finds himself lying behind the infected, he slowly gets up and stood behind him. He quickly holds the machete in front of the infected's throat and slashes it. He backs away as the infected falls over and slumps onto the table in front of him. Unfortunately, he creates a loud thud as he lands onto the table, attracting the attention of the two remaining infected.

Yuri turns around and quickly throws his machete at the infected on the right. The machete firmly stabs through the left eye of the infected and out from the back of her head. This causes her to fall back and slump onto the floor.

The other infected on the left roars as he runs over to Yuri and flail his arms wildly, but Estelle quickly got out of her hiding spot and tosses an empty wine bottle at him. The infected stumbled as the bottle hits the side of his head. This allows Yuri to run over to him and delivers a roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him down to the floor like a bag of cement. He goes over to the motionless infected he killed earlier and removes the machete from her eye.

Before the last remaining infected could get up, Yuri stood above him and stabs his machete through the top of his head and out from the bottom of his jaw as he kneels down. He removes his machete and the infected plops onto the floor and lays motionless.

Yuri stood up and sees Estelle walking over to him.

"Not bad." She complimented.

"So are you." Yuri said before he tilts his head and gestures her to follow him out of the restaurant. As Yuri puts away his machete, the two go over to the cracked glass door. Yuri carefully opens it.

He and Estelle step out of the restaurant and arrive at the foyer of the mall. As expected, it is silent, deserted and devoid of life. Unless you count the infected as live people that is. The two run over to the escalator. They make their way up to the second floor where all the shops are closed with their shutter doors down.

The two turn to the right and notice a wooden door that's been left open. They both decide to go through it. Yuri and Estelle hold up their rifles as they cautiously go over to the door. Yuri places his hand on the door and slowly pushes it. He holds up his rifle and sees that the hallway is empty. He lets out a sigh before gesturing to Estelle that the coast is clear.

The two walk down the hallway. Only the sound of their footsteps echoed through the empty area.

"Honestly, I was expecting more of them in a shopping mall." Yuri spoke.

"They're probably mostly gathered at the other side." Estelle said.

"There's a…other side?" Yuri said incredulously.

"And that's exactly where we seem to be heading right now. Be careful what you wish for." Estelle deadpanned.

Yuri snorts and rolls his eyes. "Great. I'm officially a jinx."

When they reach the end, they turn right and walk down another hallway. They see a pair of metal doors and the two go over to it. Yuri grabs the metal handles and tries to push open, but they are locked.

"Dammit." He murmured. He looks up and sees a rectangular glass window above the doors that has since been smashed. He turns to Estelle. "Estelle, think you can crawl yourself through that window?"

"I'll try. I hope I don't cut myself in the process." Estelle said. She watches Yuri bend his knees and extends out his hands. Estelle narrows her eyes at him. "Don't get any funny ideas."

Yuri groans and rolls his eyes again. "I won't look at what's underneath, I swear." He said. Estelle walks over to Yuri and places her hands onto his shoulders. She climbs up and places her feet on Yuri's hands. Yuri then gives her a boost by lifting her up with all of his strength. Estelle manages to reach high enough to place her hands onto the open window and crawls through it. Yuri turns around and watches Estelle going over to the other side.

A few seconds later, he could hear the doors being unlocked. He waited for a few more seconds, hoping to get some sort of response from Estelle. But he didn't.

"Estelle?" Yuri asked, sounding concern. "Estelle, can you hear me?"

He panicked, feeling that something wrong might have happen to her. He pushes the doors open and steps inside.

"BOO!"

Yuri yelps and jumped a bit as he turns to his left. He sees Estelle standing there while wearing a werewolf mask.

She removes her mask and bursts out laughing while Yuri glares at her and shakes his head. "It's not funny!" He protested.

Estelle stops laughing and catches her breath. "You should have seen the look on your face." She said, trying to hold back her giggling. She turns around and places the werewolf mask back on the metal shelf behind her while Yuri looks around the room they are currently in.

There are metal shelves on both sides, filled with all sorts of toys ranging from dolls and plush toys to action figures and remote control vehicles.

"This place is amazing, don't you think?" Estelle asked as she walks over to the metal shelves on the other sides.

"Yeah…I guess so." Yuri said flatly as he stares at Turtlez plush toy sitting one of the metal shelves.

Estelle groaned. "Why the long face, Yuri? Lighten up."

Yuri sighs as he turns his head to Estelle. "Sorry Estelle. It's just…these toys…they remind me of my childhood. And I told you how mine was like, right? Dead mother, shitty father…I didn't get to experience a lot of fun like the other kids. I wasn't born lucky. I was just lucky to be born in this world as a human being."

Estelle frowns and turns her head away. "I'm sorry." She said.

"No, don't be." Yuri said, swatting a hand. "Let's keep moving."

Estelle turns around and sees a door at the left corner of the room. She goes over to it and pushes the door open. She and Yuri step out and enter a toy shop. They see that the walls and floor are stained and splattered with blood. The shelves have toppled over and all sorts of toys are left scattered across the floor. Some of the toys also have blood stains on them.

Estelle's eyes softened and she lets out a heavy sigh.

"Can you imagine? There could have been children in this shop when the virus broke out." Estelle uttered as she became overwhelmed with grief. Yuri silently nods his head in response.

"The bastard who made this virus may be dead, but he will not bring back the lives he took away." He added.

He and Estelle walk through the shop, carefully watching their steps and walking over the toys and shelves lying on the floor. The two go over to the glass door. Yuri grabs the handle and pushes the door open.

 _ **RIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!**_

Yuri and Estelle gasp as the door triggered the shop's alarm. This is followed by a loud screeching that rang through the entire mall.

"It's them!" Estelle said, staring at Yuri with her eyes widened in horror.

Yuri kicks the door open, smashing the glass into several tiny pieces in the process. He readies his rifle and mutters under his breath.

"Fuck."

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	7. Staying Alive

**Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing, Crimson-Tuna-Sub for reading and chaosalien for following my story. Thanks everyone!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7: Staying Alive**_

"Keep moving!" Yuri shouted at Estelle before they turn to their left and run down the corridor. They see two escalators in the distance and run their way towards it.

As they run however, a huge group of infected burst through a pair of doors in the distance and run over to the two.

Yuri and Estelle stop for a moment and fire their guns at them. The infected shriek in agony as the bullets shot through their flesh.

After they shot down the last infected, Yuri and Estelle made their way to the escalators and climb their way up to the next floor.

"We need to shut off the alarm when we reach the security room!" Estelle said to him.

When they arrived at the next floor, Yuri and Estelle turn to their left and continue running. They cross a bridge and see an open door. As they approach the open door, four infected appear and charge towards them. Yuri quickly uses his left hand to draw out his shotgun and fires at them. The blast from the shotgun sends all four infected tumbling to the floor. Yuri pumps his shotgun before putting it away onto his back.

The two go through the door and run down another hallway. When they reach the end, they heard a loud screeching coming from their right.

Yuri and Estelle gasp as they turn to the right and sure enough, there is loud slamming coming from the door at the end of the hallway.

"Don't stop! Move!" Yuri grabs Estelle's hand and the two turn to their left and burst through a pair of doors. They run down yet another hallway, not thinking of stopping for a single moment. Suddenly, one of the doors at the left side of the hallway burst open and an infected tries to grab Estelle. Yuri quickly pulls Estelle away from the infected and she landed onto the floor. Yuri places himself squarely between Estelle and the infected and he swings his rifle horizontally across the infected's face. As the infected backs away from the blow, Yuri quickly holds up his rifle and fires his head off. As the now-headless body tumbles onto the floor, a new horde of infected burst through the doors.

Yuri turns around, quickly gets Estelle back onto her feet and the two continue running down the hallway.

The two yell as they quickly push open another pair of doors. They turn around and close the doors just in time before the infected come over and slam themselves against them.

"Estelle! Find something to barricade the doors!" Yuri shouted.

Estelle turns around and frantically examines the room they are currently in. She sees a large tool cart and quickly runs over to it. She grabs the bar and pushes it over to the doors where Yuri is using every ounce of strength he has to keep the doors close while the infected on the other side are trying to burst through. Estelle places the cart in front of the doors and Yuri takes a moment to help her adjust it horizontally. After they finish adjusting it, they step away from the doors and thankfully, the cart is strong enough to prevent the infected from bursting through…for now.

Yuri and Estelle both take a brief moment to catch their breath. After breathing in some air into their lungs, Yuri turns around and glances at three propane tanks placed at the wall.

"Help me out." He said to Estelle, gesturing her to the tanks. Estelle obliged and the two run over to them. Yuri picks up two of them while Estelle carries the last one. The two go near the doors which they had just barricaded and place the tanks down on the floor.

When they are done, Estelle glances up and widens her eyes in horror.

"Yuri!" She shouted. Yuri turns around and gasps as he sees an infected running over to him. Yuri quickly kicks him in the stomach. As the infected backs away, he draws out his machete and swings it horizontally across his neck, decapitating him. Another infected runs over to Yuri and grabs him by his shoulders.

As Yuri wrestles with the infected, Estelle holds up her gun and aims at them. "Yuri! Tilt your head to the right!" She shouted.

Yuri obeyed and tilts his head. The infected opens his jaw and was about to bite him but Estelle quickly fires a shot and the bullet went right through his eye and out from the back of his head.

Yuri pushes the infected away from him and quickly stabs it through the bottom of his chin with his machete. He removes his weapon and kicks him in the stomach, sending the infected sprawling through the floor.

He and Estelle turn around and see the cart falling over and cause a deafening thud. Estelle quickly runs over to Yuri's side as the doors slowly open and some of the infected are slide their arms through the opening they have manage to create and wildly flail them.

Yuri watches them with a stern gaze as he takes out a grenade. When the doors finally burst open, he removes the safety pin and tosses the grenade over to the propane tanks just as the infected made their mad dash towards him and Estelle.

"RUN!" He shouted as he and Estelle turn around and run their way to the door in front of them that's been left opened by the two infected who were killed earlier.

Within two seconds, the grenade blows up and the propane tanks provide greater fuel for its explosion. A huge portion of the horde is caught in the explosion and their dismembered limbs are sent flying through the air before scattering across the floor.

The remaining six infected who are fortunate to survive the explosion, continue their pursuit of Yuri and Estelle.

When the two reach the end of yet another hallway, they turn to the door on the right and Yuri opens it. They dash inside the room. They glance at the alarm on the wall and it is still ringing loudly throughout the floor. Yuri goes over to the alarm. He breaks the glass and pulls the switch upwards to turn it off. Meanwhile, Estelle turns to the doorway and holds up her rifle. When four infected arrive at the doorway, she quickly shoots them down. After shooting down the fourth infected, her rifle ran out of bullets.

When the two remaining infected entered the room, Yuri and Estelle both run over to them and swing their rifles across their faces, knocking them back. Yuri tosses his pistol to Estelle who catches it and he shoots down the infected on the right with his rifle. Estelle shoots the infected on the left with a single shot from Yuri's pistol.

After eliminating the two remaining infected, Yuri and Estelle lower their weapons and catch their breath.

The two turn to each other and gave each other a wan smile.

"Yuri…Thank you…" She said between gasps.

Yuri responded by nodding his head. "You're welcome."

The two turn around and examine the room they are currently in. In front of them were two desks with four computers and four television screens hang above them on the wall. There are also two chairs that have fallen over on the floor. Next to the two desks on the left is an exit door. On the right is a smaller desk with a drawer underneath it. Placed between the desk and the deactivated alarm is a storage locker filled with pistols and ammunition boxes.

There is no mistaking it. This is the security room which the two have been looking for.

"Alright, let's contact for help." Yuri said, turning to Estelle.

"We shouldn't use the computers though. Remember, Alexei and his men might track down our signal." Estelle said.

Yuri sighs in frustration. "So much for that. They could have made the job so much easier for us."

"Don't throw in the towel yet. Let's find something we can use to contact help that Alexei and his men won't be able to detect our signal." Estelle said. Yuri nods his head. He turns his attention to the drawer underneath the desk. He gestures Estelle to the drawer and the two walk over to it.

Yuri opens the shelf and they found some handheld transceivers inside it.

"Handheld transceivers! That's great!" Estelle widens her eyes hopefully. "They don't require a communications tower to contact any outside signals."

"Which means we can contact Nolan with these!" Yuri said as a small grin sweeps across his face. Estelle nodded.

Yuri puts down one of them on the desk and extends the antenna of the other transceiver. While Yuri tries to make contact with Nolan and the military with the transceiver, Estelle takes out a magazine from a pouch on Yuri's vest and reloads her rifle.

The two waited for a few minutes in anxiety, hoping the transceiver would detect some sort of signal.

Eventually, a voice spoke.

 _"Hello?"_

Yuri and Estelle gasp and widen their eyes. The man instantly recognizes who the source of the voice is.

 _"Hello?"_ The voice spoke again.

"Nolan?! Nolan, it's me!" Yuri yelled, pulling the transceiver closer to his mouth.

 _"Yuri Lowell?!"_ Nolan said from the other side. Yuri could hear him letting out a sigh of relief. _"I thought you were a goner!"_

"Yeah well…" Yuri shrugs his shoulders. "Complications. Listen, I have wonderful news. I've found Estellise."

 _"You did?!"_ Nolan said incredulously.

"Yes, he did." Estelle spoke up. "I'm alive and well."

 _"That's fantastic!"_ Nolan cried joyously. _"It's good to hear you, Miss Estellise."_

"Now we just need a lift out of here." Yuri said. "Can you send in a helicopter?"

 _"Alright. Give me a minute."_ Yuri could hear Nolan putting down his radio for a moment to get a map. As he waits, he turns to Estelle who holds up his pistol to him. Yuri smiles at her and holds up his hand.

"It's okay. You can have it." He said. Estelle lowers the pistol and puts it back into her pocket.

Yuri turns back to his transceiver when he hears Nolan picking up his radio. _"Yuri?"_ He asked from the other side.

"I hear ya."

 _"Okay, there's a helipad at the northernmost part of the island. These are the coordinates on the map. Remember. N45, E22. Did you get that?!"_ Nolan yelled at the last part, demanding Yuri to vividly memorize the numbers.

"N45, E22." Yuri repeated. "Yeah, I got it."

 _"Good. We're sending a chopper over there right now. Be there within 24 hours. If you can't make it within that time however, you'll have to contact us again in a week. My boss and I can't risk ourselves getting penalized by our superiors for sending a military vehicle to a prohibited area without authorization."_

"Understood. We'll be there. Hopefully."

 _"I hope to see you and Estellise soon."_

With that, Nolan hangs up the radio. Yuri puts away the transceiver into one of the pouches on his vest. He turns to Estelle who nods her head.

"Let's get going then." She said.

"Right. N45, E22. Those are the coordinates." Yuri said.

"I got them memorized in my head too." Estelle places her finger on the side of her head. Yuri turns around and makes his way to the exit next to the computers. But he stops in his tracks when Estelle spoke again. "Yuri…" He turns back to her. "Thank you for protecting me."

Yuri smirked at her. "You're welcome." He turns around again and walks his way to the exit with Estelle following him from behind.

He pushes the door open.

Suddenly, he hears a roar and quickly turns his head to the left. He sees three infected running over towards him.

"Stand back!" He yelled to Estelle and he quickly holds up his rifle and fires several bullets. He manages to shoot down two of them but the last one who managed to survive the barrage of bullets goes near Yuri and grabs him by his arms.

Yuri tries to wrestle out of his grip but the infected proves himself to be stronger and he pushes him towards the railing. Estelle watches in horror with her eyes widened and her mouth agape as the railing breaks itself apart and the infected sends Yuri and himself plummeting down to the bottom floor.

 _CRACK!_

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yuri lets out an agonized scream as the excruciating pain lanced through his back.

"Yuri!" Estelle cried in terror as she goes over to the edge of the corridor and sees Yuri and the infected both lying on the floor. The former is in extreme pain and agony. The infected slowly gets back up from the floor and turns his head to Yuri. Estelle quickly draws out her newly given pistol and aims at the infected.

As the infected opens his mouth and about to pounce at Yuri, Estelle quickly fires a bullet and it shot right through the top of his head and out from the bottom of his jaw. The infected lets out a low howl as he slumps to the floor and lays dead.

"Oh God!" Yuri manages to yell as he lies on the floor helplessly.

"Yuri!" Estelle cried again. "Hang on!" Suddenly, a loud screeching is heard and she turns her head to the right. She frowns in both horror and frustration. "Shit!" She glances back at Yuri one last time before she runs his way down to the bottom floor and help her friend.

"Please hang in there, Yuri. I'm not leaving you behind." She uttered as she runs her way to a spiral staircase in front of her. As she runs down the stairs, a pair of doors burst open and a horde of infected comes running out of them. She kept running down, not stopping for a second.

Meanwhile, Yuri yells in pain again as he continues lying on the floor helplessly. Never before in his entire life had he felt so much intense pain going through his body. Panic took hold of the injured soldier as he could hear the loud screeching of the infected earlier. Estelle is in danger again and unfortunately, he could only lie on the floor helplessly due to a broken spine.

He closes his eyes and gulps, making a quick prayer to God and hoping that he and Estelle will somehow miraculously survive and still get out of here alive. He turns his head when he sees an infected growling. Sure enough, he sees the infected running over to him. Yuri holds up his rifle which he still manages to hold on to during and after his fall and fires at the infected. The bullet shot through her chest and she is send tumbling backwards to the floor.

He then looks up and manages to see Estelle running down the stairs with a horde of infected following her from behind.

"Come on Estelle…" He manages to say. "You can do it." He aims his rifle at the pursuing infected and fires several bullets at them. He holds onto the trigger of his rifle, never wanting to let go and continues firing. He manages to shoot down some of the infected, giving Estelle a higher rate of survival.

Eventually, Yuri's rifle ran out of bullets. He tosses it away as his vision became blurry. "Fuck…" He uttered. "Estelle…"

"Yuri!" Estelle shouted as she ran over to his side. She kneels down and quickly opens up the pouch on his vest containing his grenades.

She takes out one of them and turns around to see the remaining infected reaching the bottom of the stairs and running their way over to her. Estelle stares at them with a determined frown as she pulls out the safety pin and tosses the grenade over the infected.

The grenade exploded and all the infected were killed in the explosion.

Estelle sighs in relief, also feeling amazed that she has miraculously survive from the pursuit. Then, with a look of concern and horror, she whirls about and looks down at Yuri.

"Oh God, Yuri!" She said as she kneels down to his side again and lifts his head up with her right hand. "Yuri! Stay with me!"

"Es…Estelle? Is…is that you?" Yuri uttered as his vision is becoming groggy.

"Yes, it's me!" Estelle quickly replied in panic. "I'm here! Don't die!"

"I…my body…feels…heavy." Yuri then attempts to get up.

"Yuri, don't-"

"AAAHHHHHH!" Yuri bellowed another agonizing yell after just lifting his upper torso up from the floor and quickly lies back down again.

Estelle places her hands on his shoulders and gently pins him down on the floor. "Yuri, don't get up. You're hurt really badly." She said.

"Estelle…" Yuri uttered as he breathes in and out at a rapid rate. "Just go."

"What?" Estelle's eyes widened.

"Just go…save yourself…get to the helicopter."

"NO!" Estelle bawled. "What did you say to me last night, huh? That when we get back to America, you'll rent an entire ice cream shop for me?" Estelle took a hard gulp as tears are now welling up her eyes. "Please…stay with me…"

Yuri stares at Estelle wordlessly for a moment as he continues breathing rapidly. He closes his eyes and gave a single nod of his head to her.

"I'll…I'll try…" He said.

"Good." Estelle said as she wipes off the tears from her eyes. "Stay down. I'll be back."

She stood up and looks around the basement. Her vision then lands upon a pile of cardboard sheets lying in front of a hardware store. She runs over to them and picks up a sheet of cardboard. Hopefully, it will be big enough for Yuri to lie on. She rushes back to him with the sheet of cardboard.

She then gently lays down the sheet of cardboard onto the floor and in front of Yuri. She goes over to him and grabs him by his ankles.

"This might hurt a little. Bear with me." Estelle said to Yuri. She begins dragging Yuri over to the sheet while he groans in pain and agony in the process. After leaving behind a trail of blood, Estelle manages to lay Yuri onto the sheet on the cardboard. To her relief, it was big enough for his entire body to lie on.

Estelle then goes behind him and grabs the cardboard. She begins dragging Yuri all the way to the entrance of the mall. She stops for a moment to open the glass doors. After fully opening them, Estelle grabs the cardboard and drags Yuri all the way to her pickup truck.

"Hang on Yuri…" Estelle said as she fights back the tears that are forming up in her eyes again. "We'll get out here…together…"

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	8. Friends

**Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8: Friends**_

Estelle cautiously walks through the forest while carrying Yuri's pistol in her hands. She and Yuri were getting hungry and because they are extremely tired of eating potatoes, she decides to go out to the wilderness, hoping to find other sources of food.

It's been two weeks since they survived their visit to the mall. After Yuri broke his spine, Estelle brought him back to the hospital. After resting him in one of the patient wards, she immediately applied bandages and medication to his injuries. Because Estelle chose not to leave the island without Yuri, they missed their opportunity to head straight to the helipad to be rescued. But at least they now have a transceiver and as soon as Yuri fully recovers from his injuries, they'll contact Nolan again for another evacuation.

For the next two weeks, Estelle showed great concern and anxiety for Yuri, to the point that she will stay up all night at his bedside, hoping that he would live through the night. She hopes that the day when Yuri finally recovers from his injuries will come sooner so that they won't have to spend another day trap on this forsaken island.

Estelle gasps when she heard pitter-patter from a distance. She quickly runs over to a nearby tree and hides behind its trunk. When she pokes her head out, she lets out a sigh, feeling relieved that it wasn't an infected.

Instead, it was a rooster.

Estelle turns to her gun and grips onto the handle tightly. She had never killed an animal in her life before, but she had no other option. She must do so in order to keep herself and Yuri alive.

She takes out a silencer, which she got from the hospital's ammunition locker, and inserts it to the pistol's muzzle. She turns back to the rooster and aims her pistol at it.

However, as she holds up her pistol, her hands began to shake uncontrollably. She takes a deep breath, hoping to calm herself down. However, just before she could pull the trigger, the rooster turns its head and runs off.

Estelle groans as she lowers her weapon. "I'm hopeless." She muttered to herself.

She runs off after the rooster and deeper into the forest. The trees and bushes become denser as she goes further inside.

When she arrives at a small open area, she grips onto her pistol with both hands and looks around her surroundings as she slowly walks through the forest. The forest is dead silent and the only sound Estelle could hear is her footsteps.

Suddenly, the bushes behind her rustle and quickly followed by a loud agonizing shriek coming from a rooster. Estelle gasps and quickly turns around in the speed of lightning. She holds up her pistol in front of her face.

That's definitely the sound of the rooster she was chasing after, but what caught it? Is it either a carnivorous animal or an infected?

As the bushes rustle harder, she slowly backs away as she places a finger in front of the trigger. She is prepared to shoot whatever is coming out of the bushes.

"Who's there?" A voice called.

Estelle widens her eyes. Was that the voice of a person? Her answer reveals itself when a man steps out of the bushes while carrying a machete in one hand and a dead rooster by its legs on the other.

"Whoa!" The man said with his eyes widened in shock. He quickly holds his hands up and inch away "I'm not a flesh-biter! I swear!"

The scientist lowers her pistol as she examines the man. He has messy pink hair with strands of black and yellow in the front, blood red eyes and wears a black t-shirt, a brown belt with a silver buckle, blue jeans, black socks and brown boots.

"I…I…" Estelle gasps softly as she tries to wrench control of her vocal cords.

"Hey, it's okay." The man chuckled as he lowers his hands and walks closer to her. "Like I said, I'm not one of them. And…I'm equally surprised as you are to see another normal human being after so many years."

Estelle coughs as she puts away her pistol. "It's…good to see another person who isn't infected." Estelle said to the man. "What's your name?"

"I'm Zagi." The man greeted with a smile. "You?"

"Estelle." She said. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm hunting for food and I came across this rooster." Zagi replied, holding up the recently-killed rooster.

Estelle chuckled. "Funny…so am I. I was after that rooster until you killed it." She said.

Zagi laughed in response. "Well then…since we were both hunting for the same animal, don't mind if I could share the food with you?" He asked politely.

"You would? Thanks." She said.

"You're welcome." Zagi said. "Don't mind if I could also introduce you to my friends?"

Estelle gasps and widens her eyes in surprise. "Friends?"

"Yup." Zagi nods his head. "I'm not the only one on this island who isn't a flesh-biter."

"Flesh-biter?" Estelle asked, slightly tilting her head.

"It's what we call the infected." Zagi turns and gestures to Estelle. "Come on. Follow me."

A smile sweeps across her face as Estelle follows him from behind. Zagi holds up his machete in front of him as they walk through the forest together.

Estelle felt extremely happy to meet another person besides Yuri who is neither one of Alexei's men nor an infected after seven years. Zagi's presence actually gave her a glimmer of hope and more motivation to get herself and Yuri out of the island, along with her new acquaintances.

"Zagi, how long have you been on this island?" She inquired.

Zagi sighs sadly. "Seven years. I've been here ever since the virus broke out at the island's hotel." He replied soberly. "I came here with my friends on vacation…to free ourselves from our stressful lives back in America. Then…all hell broke loose."

"I know how you feel." Estelle said. "I am also here for seven years now. I'm a scientist and I was sent here by the military on this island to find a cure for the virus."

"So the government did respond." Zagi said, briefly turning to Estelle.

"Yes…but…things happened and…I ended up getting myself stranded here." She said with a deep frown.

Zagi turns back to the front and they continue walking through the forest. Eventually, they find themselves out into an open field. Estelle widens her eyes in awe to see an abandoned cabin house built in the middle of it.

The windows open, revealing a muscular brown haired man dressed in a black tank top, dark tan pants and sandals.

"Zagi! You're back!" The man said with a smirk.

"Yup! And look what I found!" Zagi smiles back at him while holding up his rooster.

"Great! Tison and I are starving!" The man said happily. He then notices Estelle standing behind Zagi. "Who's the girl?"

"Oh, this is Estelle." Zagi said to him.

"Hi." Estelle smiled at the man as she waves her hand at him.

"Hello." The man waves back at her with a warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Estelle. My name is Clint."

"Nice to meet you too, Clint." Estelle said.

"Don't mind if we invite her for lunch?" Zagi asked Clint.

"That sounds like a great idea." Clint said as a grin takes form on his face. He turns away from the window and walks his way to the door.

Zagi gestures Estelle to follow him to the cabin. As they walk towards the wooden door, Clint opens it from the other side, allowing them to enter.

When Estelle enters the cabin, she looks around the interior and widens her eyes in awe. At the right side, there is a fireplace with two armchairs, a small coffee table and a sofa placed in front of it. On the left side is a wooden staircase leading to the second floor. Beyond that was a fairly large dining area with a rectangular table and four wooden chairs.

"The place looks…beautiful." Estelle said, noticing how clean and tidy the interior of the house is.

"Thanks." Zagi said as he turns to Clint and hands the dead rooster to him.

"You may sit around while I go to the back and cook up our lunch." Clint said to Estelle.

"Thank you." Estelle said, bowing her head to Clint in gratitude.

"You're welcome." Clint then turns around and shouts as he looks up at the top of the staircase. "Tison! Are you done cleaning upstairs?"

"Yes Clint!" A voice from the second floor replied.

"Good! Why don't you come down? We have a guest!"

"A guest? Interesting. I'm coming down now!"

After getting his reply, Clint turns to the doorway and leaves the cabin. "Take a seat, Estelle." Zagi said to Estelle, gesturing her to the sofa. Estelle nods her head before she and Zagi walks over to the living area.

Estelle sits down on the sofa while Zagi takes a seat on one of the armchairs. After they both sat down, a man arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Estelle turns around to see him. The man has long white hair with a visible scar below his eyes and wears a black jacket with a white t-shirt underneath it, black gloves, a black belt with a silver buckle, blue jeans and black shoes.

The man widens his eyes and smiles at Estelle as he walks over to her. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am. I'm Tison." Tison greeted her before he extends a hand to her.

"Estelle." She introduced herself before shaking Tison's hand.

"I'm surprised to see another person on this island who isn't a flesh-biter." Tison said.

"We all are, Tison." Zagi said to him.

Estelle turns back to Zagi and inquired, "Do you three live here?"

"Yup." Zagi nodded. "We've been living here ever since the virus broke out. This place is like a home to us. Of course, it will serve as our home until the day we can find a way to get the hell out of this island." He leans back on his armchair and sadly looks up at the ceiling. "I wonder how my parents are doing? They probably heard the news of the virus…and then lose all hope and discard me because they think I'm dead."

Estelle frowned. "Hey, don't say that." She said. Zagi lowers his head and stares at Estelle wordlessly. "I'm sure they'll never discard you because they are your parents. They love you very much and are willing to continue waiting for you until the day you return home."

"But what if they actually stop waiting for me and moved on?"

"You'll never know how long people are willing to wait."

A small smile appears on Zagi's face. "Thanks Estelle." He said softly. Estelle smiles back at him.

The three sat around in the living area and pass the time by conversing with each other. Eventually, after half an hour has passed, Clint returns back into the house while carrying a plate of fried chicken. The four head to the dining area and Clint place their lunch on the table. Estelle, Clint and Zagi take their seats while Tison grab four plates from a nearby cabinet and place them on the table. After Tison sits down, the four began eating their lunch.

"So how long have you all known each other?" Estelle asked everyone. Zagi, Clint and Tison exchanged glances for a moment.

"Eight years." Clint turns to her as he replied. "Back in America, we were all working in the same factory. We three meet and hang out with each other every day at work."

"One day, we three decided to go on a holiday together to Cocoon Island to have fun and get to know each other even more." Zagi said.

"But coming here turn out to be a tragic mistake." Tison said grimly. "Now, we're trapped here, hoping to one day find a way to get out of here."

Estelle smiles at the three of them. "Guys…why don't you come with me?" She asked. Zagi, Clint and Tison stare at her. "You see…I have a friend who can-"

"Friend?" Zagi asked, widening his eyes.

"Yeah." Estelle nods her head. "My friend came here to rescue me. He's injured right now though, but when he recovers, we are going to the northernmost part of the island to get onto a helicopter and leave this island. So why don't you three come along with me so he can also help you-"

"No." Zagi puts down his chicken wing onto his plate and leans back on his chair.

Estelle squints her eyes in confusion. "What?"

"Just, no!" Zagi said in despair as he leans forward and slaps his forehead in frustration.

Clint and Tison glance at their friend for a moment before turning back to Estelle with icy glares. Estelle stares back at the two apprehensively.

"Is there…something wrong?" She asked.

"You never should have said that." Clint said to her flatly.

Zagi lets out a yell as he slams his fists onto the table. He looks up and glances at Clint and Tison. "Can you two leave us?" He asked. Clint and Tison silently get up from their chairs and leave the dining area.

Estelle takes a hard gulp. "Zagi, if there is a problem, can you kindly explain to me-"

Zagi cuts her off by lifting his head up and lets out a huge sigh. He then stares back at Estelle with a cold glare, making her flinch.

"You know…it's really a shame that you already had a… _male_ friend." Zagi pushes away the few strands of hair that were dangling in front of his eyes. "Because you know, upstairs…" He points his finger at the ceiling. "We got this very beautiful outfit that we took from the hotel that's been laying around in our room for the last seven years. And we were hoping that you could put it on for us…because you really look like the perfect woman to try it on. I mean…that gorgeous pink hair of yours…those beautiful light blue eyes…you would have been so beautiful in that outfit."

Estelle gulped nervously as she felt extremely uncomfortable after listening to what Zagi just said.

Zagi licks his lips before he continued, "You see Estelle, for the last seven years, my friends and I feel so…lonesome. We haven't seen a woman for such a long time. That is why you were so special to us, Estelle. You could have been our friend. But then you have to fuck everything up by telling us that you already had a male friend. Tell me, Estelle. Does this male friend of yours fuck you every night on the bed?"

Estelle remains silent as all she could do is to stare back at him in horror. Zagi glares at Estelle for a few more seconds before he widens his eyes and his teeth broke out into a huge grin.

"Wait…he didn't?" Zagi throws back his head and burst out in laughter. A few seconds later, he looks back at Estelle. "That's fantastic! That means we can-"

As Zagi gets up from his chair, Estelle quickly draws out her pistol and holds it up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zagi said in terror as he holds up his hands and backs away.

"Stay back or I'll shoot you!" Estelle shouted with her eyes wide in terror. Zagi looks up and see Clint and Tison walking over to the dining area. They want to interfere but they froze when Zagi shakes his head at them and gestures them to stand down.

"Now…" Estelle breathed heavily as she tries to calm herself. "You will do as I say. Got it?" Zagi nodded. "You will let me take the food and let me out of this place. And when I leave, I don't ever want to see you again. _Understand?!_ " She bellowed the last word she spoke.

Zagi nods his head again. Estelle slowly gets up from her chair and takes what remains of the fried chicken from the table while still aiming her pistol at Zagi.

Estelle turns around and stares boldly at Clint and Tison. "You two…fuck off." She said flatly to the two men. Clint and Tison obliged and move aside.

She aims her pistol at the two as she walks past them. She then runs her way to the door and pushes it. As soon as she steps out of the house, she immediately made a mad dash and sprints her way out of the forest.

Zagi, Clint and Tison race to the door and watch her leave until she is out of their sight.

A smirk appears on Zagi's face. "Man, she is one strong and stubborn bitch." He turns to his friends who smile back at him. "Clint, Tison, get your weapons. We're going after her."

* * *

After arriving back at the hospital, Estelle run through the glass doors and dash her way up the stairs. When she arrived at the second floor, she turns to her right and makes her way to the patient wards. She runs down to the very end of the corridor and enters the room.

She sees Yuri lying on his bed with his eyes closed. She quickly goes over to his bedside and gently places the side of her head against his chest. She sighs in relief when she could feel his heartbeat.

Estelle places the fried chicken on the table in front of his bed. She turns back to Yuri with a worried frown. She stares down at the bandages wrapped around his chest and abdomen, hoping that they are good enough to heal Yuri's injuries.

"Yuri…" Estelle uttered. She slowly walks over to his side and gently strokes his hair. "Please get up soon…I need you…"

She looks up at the window and sees that the curtains are still closed. She sighs as she goes over to the window. She pushes the curtains open to allow the sunlight to shine into the room.

Suddenly, Estelle's eyes widened in horror. She lets out a soft gasp as she looks down through the window and sees three familiar figures walking over to the entrance of the building.

"Fuck." She said as she turns away from the window. "They fucking followed me!"

She turns back to Yuri and walks over to his bedside again. "I got some guys to drive away. I'll be back for you. I promise." She leans down and plants a small kiss on Yuri's forehead before walking away.

When she steps out of the room, she closes the door behind her. She then draws out her pistol and holds onto its handle tightly with both hands.

"Come and get me, you fuckers." Estelle muttered before she starts walking down the corridor.

When she steps out of the patient wards, she gasps when she could hear Tison's voice coming from the bottom floor. "Man, this place is a fucking shithole. Are you sure she's here?"

Estelle scurries over to the wall and leans against it while holding up her pistol closely to her face.

"Tison, shut the fuck up. We clearly saw her footprints leading all the way here." She could hear Zagi replying to her. "Now listen, you and Clint go upstairs while I look around the basement. And remember, we want her alive."

"Do you think her male friend is here too?" Clint asked.

"Probably. Find him too." Zagi said.

"Fuck. They're after Yuri too." Estelle cursed under her breath. "This is all my fault. But I won't let them."

She looks up at the pair of doors to the ICU area. She scurries over to the door and quietly opens them just as Clint and Tison climb their way up the stairs. She gets into the room and closes the door just in time before the two arrive at the top floor.

She turns her head to the open area where the six beds with infected people strapped onto them are still placed there. She walks over to the beds and hides behind one of them.

"Perhaps she's inside here." Estelle could hear Clint saying from the other side of the doors.

Clint and Tison open the doors. Estelle could barely see the two men brandishing machetes in their hands.

As soon as Tison turns his head to the right, Estelle lets out a yell as she gives a hard push and sends the bed slamming onto the two.

Estelle quickly gets up and runs her way to the doors. However, Clint manages to recover quickly and stops her by grabbing her hand.

"You ain't going anywhere!" Clint bellowed.

"Let…go!" Estelle quickly aims her pistol at Clint and shot a bullet at his arm. Clint yells in pain and agony as he releases Estelle. She quickly runs out of the ICU area and over to the stairs. She runs down the stairs and makes her way to the glass doors.

However, as soon as she steps out of the hospital, Zagi appeared from her left and swings his fist at her face. It collided right into her forehead and sends Estelle tumbling down onto the ground.

She groans as her vision became blurry. She could barely see Zagi standing above her with a sadistic smirk taking form on his face.

"Oh Estelle, I just wanted us to be friends. That's all." He said with a cruel snigger.

' _Dammit.'_ Estelle thought before she finally closes her eyes and passes out.

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	9. Trauma

**Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 9: Trauma**_

Zagi snickered as he looks down at Estelle who lays motionless on the ground with her eyes closed. He then kicks away her pistol before bending down to gather her up in his arms. Clint and Tison step out of the hospital and rejoin him.

"That fucking bitch, she shot my arm!" Clint roared as he wraps a hand around his bloodied gun wound, trying to cover up his bleeding but to no avail. His other hand is still gripping onto his machete.

Zagi snorts as he glances at his gun wound. "That's a shame." He said uncaringly.

Clint grits his teeth and growls angrily as he unwraps his hand around his wound and clenches his fist tightly. "That fucking asshole, I'll make her pay!" As Clint began advancing towards the unconscious woman in Zagi's arms, Tison quickly come over and stood in front of him.

"Clint, stop!" Tison cried as he gently places his hand on his chest. Clint stares back at him with his eyes quivering in rage. "Calm down. She's a woman for God's sake. We need her alive."

"SHUT UP!" Clint bellowed. "I don't fucking care. I'm extremely pissed off right now and I want this fucking bitch to pay for what she did to me!" He then roughly pushes Tison aside, who stumbles onto the ground. Clint continues walking towards Estelle, preparing to unleash his fury upon her.

"Whoa, whoa, Clint. Fuck off." Zagi said flatly as he quickly holds up his machete and points its blade at Clint's face. Clint flinched at the sight of it and immediately backs away. Zagi gave him an icy glare while clinging on Estelle tightly and Clint's rage quickly dissipates. Tison also gets up from the ground and stood behind Clint.

"I don't fucking care what this woman did to you, Clint. But I want this lady alive no matter what and she's going to stay with us for the rest of our lives. So you better calm the fuck down, asshole. If you ever throw a temper tantrum and lay a finger on her, I will cut your limbs off. Got it?" When he finished, Zagi lowers his machete and sheathes it into his pouch at the side of his hip. "Now then, her male friend is probably still somewhere inside the building. Find and kill him. We don't want him to…interrupt our relationship with her."

Clint and Tison nod their heads in response and clench onto their machetes tightly. Zagi lets out a sigh. "I'm feeling quite tired now so I'm heading my way back to the cabin with her. Do it for me."

The two men silently turn around and head back into the hospital while Zagi looks down at the unconscious lady still being cradled in his arms. A warm smile takes form on his face. "Don't worry Estelle. Be a good girl…and everything will be alright." He said to her soothingly. With that, he turns around and heads his way back to the cabin.

* * *

Clint and Tison walk their way to the very end of the corridor and enter the room. They see Yuri still lying on his bed with his eyes closed.

"That must be him." Tison whispered to Clint. Clint nods his head solemnly and holds up his machete.

"Let's get this over with." Clint said. The two men silently walk over to Yuri's bed. Tison then stood in front of the bed while Clint finds himself standing by the bedside.

Clint grits his teeth and narrows his eyes as he now holds up his machete above Yuri's chest. He turns it around and lets out a yell as he brings it down.

Suddenly, a hand jolted up and grabs Clint's arm, stopping him from bringing down his weapon. Clint and Tison gasp and widen their eyes in shock as Yuri's eyes suddenly snap open. Yuri stares at Clint boldly as he firmly grasps his arm and tightened his grip. Clint tries to wrestle out of his grip but to no avail. He is shocked that a man who looks less muscular than him and injured no less is overwhelming him. Tison could only stood where he is and watch in shock and horror.

Yuri furiously lets out a yell and he gets up from his bed and swings his fist across Clint's face, knocking him back and sending him stumbling onto the other bed behind him. He also dropped his machete in the process.

Tison, who finally regains control of his body, climbs onto the bed and stood above Yuri. He quickly wraps his hands around Yuri's neck and tries to strangle him. Yuri grabs Tison's hands and tries to remove them.

Tison turns his head to his fallen friend and shouted, "Clint! I got him! I-" His triumph was short-lived however as Yuri quickly brings his forehead forward and collides it against the side of Tison's head while he was distracted.

Yuri then pushes Tison, sending him falling off of his bed and rolling over the floor.

Clint recovers and gets back up but Yuri quickly turns and kicks him right in the chest, knocking him back again. Yuri finally gets out from his bed and grabs Clint by his shoulders. He pulls him up and briefly gives him a cold glare before throwing him against the wall. The back of Clint's head collided against the wall, creating a huge impact strong enough to knock him out unconscious.

Yuri then turned to Tison who is about to recover. He tried to get up but Yuri walks over to him and kicks him in the face. His foot collided against Tison's forehead, knocking him into unconsciousness as well.

* * *

After tying Clint and Tison each to a wooden chair with ropes, Yuri takes the piece of fried chicken left by Estelle on the table and eats it. After satisfying his hunger, Yuri puts down the bones onto the table and turns back to his captives who both recover and woke back up to reality.

Yuri walks over to them while holding onto his own machete in his own hand and stood in front of Clint.

" _Where…is…Estelle_?" Yuri demanded Clint while emphasizing every word he said.

Clint responded by spitting a huge amount of saliva onto Yuri's cheek. "Go fuck yourself, asshole." Clint said flatly.

Yuri smirks and nods his head as he wipes off the saliva from his cheek. He abruptly turns back to Clint and swiftly stabs his machete through his right thigh. Clint lets out a loud shriek of pain and agony that rang throughout the entire hospital. Tison drops his jaw and widens his eyes in horror as he helplessly watches his friend suffer.

Yuri grabs Clint by his chin and turns his head to make him stare right back at him face-to-face. "Please don't piss me off further. I'm really in a bad mood right now." Yuri said flatly as he stares back at Clint with an icy glare. "Now I'm going to ask you again. Where is Estelle?"

"S-s-s-she's with Zagi. She's his pet now." Clint struggled to say with his eyes wide and shaking in horror.

Yuri releases his hand and pulls out a map of Cocoon. He unfolds it and shows it to Clint. "Where is Zagi?" He asked. When Clint didn't respond for a few seconds, he raised his anger. "WHERE?!"

"There's a forest not far from here. In the middle of the forest, you'll find our cabin. That's where he is." Clint said, still trembling in fear. Yuri removes his machete from Clint's thigh, making him yell in extreme pain again.

"Mark it. With your blood." Yuri said coldly before placing the hilt of his machete into Clint's mouth. Clint then leans his head forward and struggles to mark the location of their cabin on Yuri's map with his own blood.

Afterwards, Clint spits out Yuri's machete and turns back to him. "There. I marked it." He said.

Yuri looks at the map and made a brief smirk before folding his map and putting it back into his pocket. He walks away for a moment to pick up his machete. He turns back to Clint and walks over to his side. Clint stares back at him with his eyes wide in horror. "Thank you for your co-operation." Yuri murmured as he bows his head to him.

He then proceeds to stab Clint's chest several times, making his captive gasp in extreme pain with every brutal stab he makes.

Tison screamed in terror as he helplessly watched his friend slowly being stabbed to death by their deranged captor.

After Yuri delivers one final stab onto his chest, Clint rolls his eyes back and lets out one final gasp before his head slumps over and sat on his chair lifelessly. Yuri removes his machete from his chest and now walks over to Tison who cried in horror as he struggles to free himself from the ropes that bind him onto the chair.

"What the fuck's wrong with you, man?! Why are you doing this?! We're not infected!" Tison shouted at Yuri.

"I know." Yuri nodded. "You guys aren't infected. You're _corrupted_." He then holds up his bloodied machete and Tison gasped.

"No, no, AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He lets out one final yell before Yuri brings down his machete and swings it across his neck.

* * *

Estelle moans as she groggily opens her eyes. She finds herself staring at wooden ceiling when she regains her consciousness. She lets out a gasp as she jolts up from the bed she is lying on.

Shortly after wondering where she currently is, Estelle remembered getting hit in the forehead by Zagi. She grumbled under her breath. She must have been captured by him and brought back to his cabin.

She looks around and examines the room. It's almost vacant and the only objects inside the room are the doorway in front of her, the bed she is lying on and a cardboard placed at the left corner.

Estelle gets off her bed and heads to the door. She turns the doorknob but it won't barge.

"Dammit. Zagi must have locked me inside." She muttered.

Estelle then turns her head and laid eyes on the cardboard. Perhaps she will find something inside it. She walks over to the cardboard and opens it.

Instantly, she screamed in horror as she discovers what was hidden inside the cardboard.

Inside it were two lifeless female corpses. One of them has dark red hair while the other has dark green hair. Their eyelids are half-closed, as if their dull and lifeless eyes are staring right back at Estelle. Their lips are tinged blue and their bodies are limping against the back of the cardboard. The red-haired woman is almost naked and only dressed in her undergarments. The other was dressed in a rather revealing outfit which consists of white sleeves, a sleeveless dark red blouse and white skirt, dark purple shorts and long dark purple boots.

Estelle backs away and places her hands over her mouth, extremely horrified at the gruesome display.

The door is suddenly unlocked from the outside and Zagi steps into the room. Estelle gasps and turns around to face him.

Zagi tilts his head to see the cardboard behind Estelle has been opened, revealing the two lifeless bodies.

"I see you met Gauche and Droite." Zagi said, staring back at Estelle. "That outfit Droite is wearing…you would look good in that."

"W-w-what…did you…d-d-do to them?" Estelle managed to choke out.

"They were two twin sisters who love each other very much. And we equally love them too. Clint, Tison and I met them at the hotel entrance when the virus broke out over there. We ran away together. And as we ran…Clint, Tison and I immediately felt a connection with them. When we found this cabin and lived together, we decided to ask them if…they are interested in us. When they rejected us, we got really mad and well…" Zagi shrugs his shoulders. "Things got complicated."

"In other words…" Estelle took a deep breath. "You killed them."

"We didn't mean to!" Zagi cried as small tears form in his eyes. "They resisted us…they made things difficult for us." He paused for a moment to take in a few deep breaths. "We three felt lonely afterwards…with no one to care for us. I mean…how can you survive in this living hell without…someone to be at your side." After wiping off the tears in his eyes, a small smile takes form on his face as Zagi's eyes softened. "That is until you show up into our lives." He lets out a blissful sigh. "You…make us whole again."

Zagi extends out his hand and tries to cup Estelle's chin but she swiftly swats his hand away. "You're so full of shit." She said to him flatly while staring at him with a mixture of fear and hatred.

Zagi's smile instantly vanished. "Please…I don't want to hurt you." He said softly. "Because you're a very special person."

Estelle smiles back at him and steps forward. Zagi nods his head and he smiled again. "That's right. I mean what I say." He said.

When Estelle finds herself standing close to him, Zagi holds up his hand, wanting her to grab it. Estelle stares straight into his eyes as she slowly reaches out her hands and clung onto Zagi's hand.

Then without warning, her smile instantly distorts into an ugly scowl as she gives Zagi's hand a sharp twist. Zagi yells in pain and agony as he backs away from Estelle. Estelle lets out an angry yell as she gives Zagi a hard push, sending him stumbling backwards. When he fell to the floor, Estelle quickly runs out of the room.

Zagi growls ferociously as he quickly gets back up from the floor. "I tried to be nice to you, Estelle." He said as his voice is now quivering with rage. "BUT YOU FUCKING SPAT ON MY FACE!" He unsheathes his machete from his pouch and turns to the doorway. "You want to be stubborn?! Just like Gauche and Droite?! I'll make you know your place!"

When Estelle reached the bottom of the stairs, she quickly head to the door and turns the doorknob, but it's locked.

"It's no use, Estelle!" Zagi shouted. Estelle gasps in horror as she sees Zagi standing at the top of the stairs. "I've locked the door and hid the key. You're gonna stay here with me forever."

"Over my dead body." Estelle said flatly.

Zagi shakes his head. "I rather not resort to that."

Estelle ran off and head to the dining area. Zagi slowly walks down the stairs, letting her have a running start.

"Just to let you know Estelle, I lied. I don't have any parents back at America." He yelled. He then repeated what he said earlier that day in a mocking sad tone. _"I wonder how my parents doing? They probably heard the news of the virus…and then lose all hope and discard me because they think I'm dead."_

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, a malicious grin sweeps across his face and he laughed manically as he throws his head back. Afterwards, he turned and made his way to the dining area. "Man! Who knew I am such a great actor huh?! I should be nominated for an Oscar!"

Once he steps into the dining area, Estelle, who had been hiding behind the side of the doorway, immediately brings down a wooden chair onto Zagi's head. Zagi yells in pain as he falls to the ground, drops his machete in the process and the chair broke into pieces.

She turned and ran out of the dining area but Zagi quickly roll over and grabs her ankle. Estelle finds herself falling over to the floor. Zagi quickly crawls over and above her and rolls her around. He quickly grabs her wrists and pin her against the floor. Estelle squirms as she struggles to break free.

"That's it Estelle." Zagi leans his face toward Estelle. She could feel his breath as he spoke. "You're a strong woman. That's why I admire you."

Estelle yells as she swiftly lifts up her knee, hitting Zagi in the abdomen. Zagi moans as his grip around her wrists loosen. Estelle manages to break free from his left hand and quickly inserts her free hand into her pocket while he's distracted. Zagi grits his teeth as he turns back to Estelle. "It's no use, Estelle! I'm going to-ACK!"

Zagi's eyes almost bulge out from their sockets as Estelle stabs the side of his torso with a dining knife she took from the dining area earlier.

Estelle pushes Zagi off of her and quickly got up. She runs her way to sitting area as Zagi gets up from the floor as well while placing one hand over his wound.

When Estelle stood between the coffee table and the sofa, she turns around and holds up her kitchen knife in front of her.

"That fucking hurt, Estelle." Zagi muttered under his breath. He lifts his head up and shot a bloodthirsty look at her. "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO FUCKING HURT ME?!"

He lets out a ferocious yell as he made a mad dash at Estelle. Estelle quickly dodges by shifting to the side when he is near her. She swiftly turns around and stabs her knife into Zagi's back.

Zagi yells in pain again and he furiously turns around and swings his fist across Estelle's cheek. As Estelle falls over to the floor again, Zagi quickly reaches out for the knife that is still stuck in his back. Estelle quickly recovers and crawls her way back to the doorway of the dining area. After she left the sitting area, Zagi pulls out the knife from his back and lets out another agonizing yell.

Estelle stops for a moment and gasps as she spots Zagi's machete lying on the floor. She continues crawling but Zagi quickly runs over to her and stomps her on her back. Estelle lets out a groan.

"You think you are so tough, aren't you?" Zagi said, his voice quivering with rage. "You can keep stabbing me. But at the end of the day, I'm still the victor."

Estelle lifts her head back up and continues crawling over to Zagi's machete. Zagi laughed manically as he watches and follows Estelle. "Still got some energy left in you, eh?" He yells angrily as he brings up his foot and stomps onto Estelle's back again.

Estelle groans in pain again as she finds herself temporarily pin against the floor. She quickly recovers again and continues crawling over to the machete. But just before she could reach it, Zagi yells again as he stomps onto her back for the third time. He then kneels down and rolls her over to make her face him. He quickly wraps his right hand around her throat and strangles her. Estelle gasps for air as she grabs his arm with both hands and struggles to break free.

Zagi holds up the kitchen knife with his other hand and stares back at Estelle with his eyes widened and a malicious grin on his face. "It's over, Estelle. You lose." He said triumphantly. "Because you failed to know what I'm truly capable of."

Estelle rolls her eyes back, hoping that the machete is placed right behind her head. She removes one hand and tries reaching out for it. She managed to grab the hilt and without warning, she swings the machete across Zagi's chest.

Zagi lets out a yell of pain and agony as the blade of the machete slash across his chest, making him drop the kitchen knife in the process and removing his hand around Estelle's throat. He falls backwards onto the floor while Estelle gets up and kneels above him with the machete still in her hand.

Zagi lifts his head up and stares back at her with a look of horrific shock and sadness. He began sobbing as tears form in her eyes. "W-w-we...could have been…together."

Estelle stares back at Zagi with her eyes widened in horror. She lets out an agonizing scream as she proceeds to repeatedly stab Zagi's face with the machete. She never stopped for a second even as blood splatters onto her hair, face, neck and hands.

The door suddenly bursts off its hinges and a figure enters the cabin. He sees Estelle in the distance and quickly goes over to her side.

"Estelle!" He yelled as he wraps his arms around the waist of the traumatized woman from behind.

"LET GO! LET ME GO!" Estelle shrieked as she drops the machete and tries to break free from the man's arm.

"ESTELLE, IT'S ME!" The man bellowed as he turns Estelle around. Estelle froze and gapes her mouth open as she comes face-to-face with him.

"Yuri?" She murmured hoarsely.

Yuri, who is dressed back into his military uniform and vest, nods his head. "It's me, Estelle." He uttered.

Estelle stares back at him silently for a few seconds before she lets out a wail of despair. She threw herself against him, hugging him tightly. Hot tears spilled from her eyes as she openly wept onto Yuri's shoulders.

"Oh God! Oh Yuri!" She bawled unhappily. Yuri immediately gathered her up into a warm embrace and hugged her close.

"It's okay, Estelle. It's alright. I'm here now." Yuri hushed soothingly as he gently rubs her back.

"Please don't leave me…please don't…" Estelle managed to whimper between sobs.

"Don't worry Estelle. I won't." Yuri reassured her warmly. Estelle looks up at him with tearstained eyes and the two stare at each other wordlessly for a few seconds.

"Let's get out of here." Yuri said to her. Estelle nodded and the two get up from the floor and make their way out of the cabin, leaving Zagi's lifeless corpse behind.

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	10. Keep On Living

_**Chapter 10: Keep On Living**_

Yuri kept driving the pickup truck northwards to where the helipad is located. Estelle sat next to him at all times. Ever since they left Zagi's cabin, she has been spacing out into nothingness and her face is expressionless. Other than her breathing, she is completely still.

Yuri glances at her for a moment before turning back to the front.

Suddenly, the engine stuttered and the truck began to slow down.

"What the?" Yuri said as he looks down at the fuel meter, realizing that the gas has depleted. "Ugh! You're fucking kidding me."

Yuri stops the truck and turns off the ignition. He grabs his shotgun before opening the door and stepping out of the truck. He quickly holds up his shotgun and looks around. After making sure that there isn't a sight of any infected, he closes the door behind it and goes over to the other side.

He opens the door and sees Estelle still sitting motionlessly at the passenger seat. Yuri puts away his shotgun and gently places his hand on her shoulder. Estelle yelped in surprise, causing Yuri to quickly remove his hand. She swiftly turns her head to Yuri and she lets out a sigh of relief when she realizes it was him.

"It's you." She murmured.

Yuri stares at her wordlessly for a moment. "Are you alright?" He asked. Estelle silently nods her head in response. "The truck has run out of gas. We're continuing our journey by foot. Can you walk?"

"Yeah." Estelle said. She unfastens her seat belt and gets out. She closes the door and steps away from the truck.

Estelle stares at the truck and places her hand on the door. "Thank you for being at my side for the last seven years." She uttered. She turned to Yuri as he gets out his shotgun.

"Let's go." Yuri said to her softly. The two walk off with Estelle closely following Yuri from behind.

* * *

The two kept on walking through the island until nightfall. When the island is completely dark, they decided to call it a day and get some rest. While Estelle sat down on the grass and rest, Yuri grabs some wood and places them in front of her. He uses a rock and his machete to start a fire. After setting up the campfire, he backs away and sits next to Estelle. He then takes out his transceiver and tries to make contact with Nolan. A minute later, the transceiver successfully detected a signal and Nolan's voice spoke.

" _Hello?" Nolan said._

"Hey Nolan, it's me again." Yuri said to his transceiver.

" _God dammit Yuri, it's been two weeks! Where the hell have you been?" Nolan asked in both frustration and concern._

"Things got complicated. Sorry to make you worry again. But I'm fine, and so is Estellise. She's still with me." Yuri said. "Send in another helicopter, will you? And don't worry, I remembered the coordinates."

" _Certainly. But this time, you better show up. My boss and I got into some trouble the last time, but thankfully my boss is a tough speaker and got us unpunished." Nolan said._

"I can't make any promises, Nolan. So I apologize in advance." Yuri replied. He could hear Nolan sighing heavily at the other side.

" _Just be there." Nolan said before hanging off._

Yuri puts away his transceiver before turning back to Estelle who sat motionlessly as she stares blankly at the campfire in front of them. He frowned worriedly at her as she had been mostly silent throughout the rest of the day.

After a few seconds, Yuri gently rests his hand on her shoulder. "Get some rest. I'll stay up the rest of the night and keep watch."

Yuri then tries to get up but Estelle quickly stops him by grabbing his arm.

"Please…don't leave me." She said softly to him.

"Of course I won't." Yuri replied. "I just-"

"Sit next to me." Estelle said flatly with a look of dead seriousness. But her tone quickly softened afterwards. "Please."

Yuri obliged and sat back down. Estelle continues grabbing onto Yuri's arm and rests her head on his shoulder. Yuri could feel Estelle trembling as she began sobbing.

"Yuri…I-I-It was horrible..." Estelle struggled to whimper between her sobs. "Back at the cabin…I saw…horrible things…w-w-worse than…the infected…it's terrible…I…I can't…"

Yuri wraps an arm around Estelle and rests his head above hers. "I'm sorry Estelle." He whispered. "I wish I was there sooner."

"Oh Yuri…" Estelle cried as her tears pour out of her eyes uncontrollably. "I don't know what I'll do without you!"

She began wailing and Yuri tightens his embrace around her, trying his best to comfort and calm her down.

"Ssh, it's okay Estelle. It's okay." Yuri whispered softly into her ear.

"I-I…I'm glad…y-you're alright…Yuri." Estelle managed to choke out between her sobs.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again." Yuri reassured.

A few moments later, Estelle looks up at Yuri with tearstained eyes. "Yuri…" She uttered. "I…I don't know if humanity is worth saving anymore. I mean…we all did horrible things." She paused for a moment to wipe away the tears from her eyes. "Alexei killed all of my friends…that man back there did something horrible and wants to do the same thing to me…and I'm no different either. I captured countless infected and kill them after I experimented on them. And when I finally do cure someone, I killed him in cold blood." She closes her eyes and moan unhappily as more tears began to form. "I'm a monster, Yuri...just like Alexei and Zagi..."

Yuri grimly lowers his head so that his eyes couldn't be seen. "It's okay, Estelle. I'm no different too." Estelle momentarily paused her weeping to look back at him. "I'm a soldier after all. And when I was in Afghanistan, I killed countless people too. Back there, I watched my fellow soldiers, whom I've bonded with and have families and loved ones back in our country, and innocent civilians who are caught in the middle of the battle, die every day right in front of me. It almost drove me to the brink of insanity. To the point that I could no longer show mercy towards any terrorist I see, and just kill them."

He looks back at Estelle who wordlessly stares back at him with tears freely cascading down her cheeks. "Sometimes…I too also wonder if humanity is worth saving." Yuri said somberly. "We kept fighting and fighting every day and for what? Is there anything that we truly achieve by the end of it? Peace? If so, how long will it last? There will always be some sort of violence afterwards."

Yuri then extends out his hand and wipes the tears off of Estelle's cheeks. "That is...until I met you. My mission to protect you and get you out of here made me realized why I became a soldier in the first place. Because I wanted to be a hero. And you gave me a reason to be a hero again. As long as there is someone worth saving, I'll keep on fighting. And _you_ are worth saving." He uttered.

Estelle continues staring back at Yuri for a few moments before she gently places her hand on Yuri's cheek. Yuri pushes away the strands of hair that are dangling in front of Estelle's forehead before closing his eyes. Estelle closes her eyes as well and the two lean forward to each other.

Their lips pressed against each other and they both wrap themselves into a warm embrace. Yuri finds himself falling onto his back while Estelle lands on top of him.

He momentarily removes his arms from Estelle to unzip and remove his bulletproof vest. Yuri then wraps his arms around her again and his hands roam over her back. As they pressed their bodies together tightly, they kissed with great ferocity and moan into each other's mouth. Estelle found herself losing the control she had hoped to maintain and she lets out a cry of satisfaction.

This managed to snap Yuri out of his thoughts as he looks back at Estelle. After realizing what they are doing, Yuri pulls himself away from Estelle and turns his head to the side. "We should stop." He said.

"How come?" Estelle asked curiously.

"I…I would get an erection." Yuri said as his cheeks blushed crimson. Estelle chortled in response.

"Yeah and…doing this on an island full of infected people isn't the best idea, huh? Hahahahaha!" Estelle laughed.

Yuri looks back at Estelle and smiled. This is the happiest expression that he has ever seen from her.

"Yuri, thank you for keeping me alive." She said to him with gratitude.

"You're welcome." Yuri said. "I love you, Estelle."

Estelle smiled back at him as she places her hands on his chest. "I love you too, Yuri." She leans down and plants a kiss on Yuri's forehead. She gets off of Yuri, allowing him to get up and put his vest back on. After he's done, the two sat together in front of the campfire.

"Get some rest. We're leaving early in the morning." Yuri said to her. Estelle nodded before she grabs hold of Yuri's arm and rests her head on his shoulder.

Yuri turns his head back to the front and held his shotgun close to him as he stays up all night to keep watch.

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**

 **First of all, I'm sorry that I haven't been updating this story for a while. That's because I choose to take some time off from this story to work on the next few chapters of my other story** _ **'Being With You'**_ **because I felt that story is harder and longer to write than this.**

 **I also apologize that this chapter feels a little short but I have decided to save what happens next for the next chapter instead. The good news is that I have planned out the rest of this story and back to updating this and** _ **'Being With You'**_ **back-to-back. So expect updates for this story is come regularly every week again. Stay tune, everyone!**

 **And one more thing, I would like to dedicate this chapter to George A. Romero, the master of the zombie genre who had recently passed away. Regardless of whether you like his works or not, you cannot deny the fact that without him, zombies would never become extremely popular in all forms of media and entertainment today and some of our favorite movies and games involving them would never exist.**

 **Rest in peace, George A. Romero. You will be dearly missed.**


	11. Splash

_**Chapter 11: Splash**_

When the sun rises up in the sky, Estelle woke up from her sleep and finds Yuri still sitting next to her wide awake. Thankfully, not a single infected came after them all night but this costs a good night sleep for Yuri.

Yuri turns to Estelle who moans as she stretches out her arms. "Hey there, had a good night sleep?" He asked her with a gentle smile.

"Yeah. But I can see that unfortunately for you, you didn't." Estelle said as she instantly notices the ugly gray bags sagging underneath his black eyes.

Yuri lets out a yawn and shakes his head. "It's okay. I'm used to it." He said as he rubs his eyes with his finger and thumb. "Let's move."

He and Estelle both get up from the ground. Yuri stomps and rubs his boot onto the now-disintegrated campfire before turning around. Estelle grabs onto his hand tightly before they walk off.

The rest of the morning was rather uneventful. They cautiously walk through another forest filled with tall trees and large bushes. After her traumatic experience with Zagi yesterday, Estelle sticks closely behind Yuri while tightening her grip around his hand. As long as she felt Yuri's presence, she felt completely safe and relieved. Yuri held his shotgun up with his other hand and stayed vigilant as he escorts Estelle through the large forest.

They kept walking forward, eventually realizing that the forest was thinning as they move on. When they reach the end of the forest, they widen their eyes as they see what lies beyond it and currently in front of them.

It is a small deserted town. The buildings look boarded up and run-down, just like the previous two towns Yuri have visited before. The helipad which Nolan instructed them to go must be located somewhere inside.

Yuri shrugged. "Well, another abandoned town. What else is new? Let's get moving."

"Yeah." Estelle uttered.

The two trudge their way through the tall grass and head towards the town. As they walk through the town, Yuri and Estelle turn their heads around and examine the abandoned buildings at both sides of the road. They once mostly serve as shops and eateries. Now they serve as charnel houses with corpses lying inside and outside of the buildings. One building has a car rammed through the window and the corpse of the driver still sat motionlessly inside the car. The entire town is eerily silent, only broken by Yuri and Estelle's footsteps on the rocky road.

Yuri and Estelle see two damaged cars and an abandoned tour bus parked horizontally in front of them. There doesn't seem to be any sort of opening through the vehicles, so the only way is to climb over them.

They walk over to the damaged car parked in front of the bus. Yuri climbs up onto the top of the car. He turns around, kneels down and extends his hand out to Estelle.

"Be careful." He said to her. Estelle grabs his hand and climbs over the car with Yuri pulling her up in the process.

Afterwards, they turn to the bus and the height between them and the top of the vehicle looks greater.

"Well, give me a boost." Estelle said to Yuri. Yuri kneels down and extends out his hands.

"Again, I won't look." Yuri smirked. Estelle chuckled as she places her hands on his shoulders. She climbs up and places her feet on his hands. Yuri lifts her up into the air. Estelle quickly grabs onto the edge of the top of the bus and she groans as she uses all of her strength to climb onto the top.

She rolls over and turns her head to the side. She crawls over to the edge of the bus and extends out her hands to Yuri who is still at the bottom. Yuri makes a leap and grabs onto her hands as he places his boots against the glass windows of the bus. He climbed while Estelle pulls him as she slowly got herself up. She kept pulling until Yuri successfully reached the top.

After they find themselves standing on top of the bus, Estelle turns around and they got a clear view of what lies behind the town. It was the vast open sea. Estelle stares at the ocean and watched the waves of water splash onto the sandy shores in awe as she had never seen it for an extremely long time.

"It's beautiful." Estelle murmured. "After living on this island for so long, I've forgotten how beautiful our world really is."

Yuri sighed as he shares the same sentiment as her. After his traumatic experience in Afghanistan and being preoccupied in doing various odd jobs for the last two years, he too had forgotten how gorgeous and breathtaking the outside world really is.

They turn their heads to the left and spotted a pier. There is a ship docked over there. Yuri and Estelle could tell that it had been left abandoned for years as the sides of it are rusted and decayed.

Yuri widens his eyes as he sees a military helicopter placed on top of the building situated in front of the pier. There are also two soldiers armed with rifles standing in front of it.

"There it is!" Yuri said to Estelle as he points his finger at the building. "The helipad! That's probably the chopper that will take us home."

Estelle could feel tears of joy forming in her eyes. At long last, after seven years of being trapped on an infected island, she is finally going home. As the tears cascade down her cheeks, Yuri turns his head to Estelle and he wraps an arm around her.

She turns to Yuri and said softly to him, "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Yuri said. "Soon, you'll be able to eat sorbets again." Estelle smiled weakly at him and wipes off her tears before she leans forward and plants a kiss on his cheek.

The two turn back to the front and lower their heads. Yuri kneels down and carefully jumps off the bus. After safely landing at the bottom, Yuri extends out his arms. Estelle bends her knees and jumps towards Yuri. Yuri catches Estelle and she lands safely into his arms. He sets her down and the two make their way to the pier.

Estelle moves closer to Yuri as they walk. She brushes her hand against his and Yuri quickly catches it without hesitation. He glances at Estelle and smiles at her before turning his head back to the front.

As they travel further through the town, they see lots of tall grass growing out from the roads and the abandoned buildings being overgrown by vines and weeds. It seems like for this island, Mother Nature has retaken its place from human civilization.

"Yuri…" Estelle said.

"What is it?" Yuri asked, turning back to Estelle.

"I've decided that when we get back to the mainland, I don't just want to eat sorbets again. I also want to travel around the world. I want to see many other things that I've never got to view for so long." She said softly as she looks back at him.

A smile plasters across Yuri's face. "Yeah, me too." He said. "Let's do it together." Estelle giggled in response.

When Yuri turns back to the front however, his smile vanished as he realized something ever since they first came into this town. "Not trying to jinx us but…for a long time now, we haven't seen another infected." He said.

"I've noticed too." Estelle frowned. "Then again, seven years have passed. These are just speculations but maybe most of them have starved to death or now they just stay sheltered inside abandoned buildings like the mall."

"The latter theory sounds possible. But still, an entire town without a single one of them? That's incredibly bizarre." Yuri said.

Estelle felt uneasy by what Yuri had said. "I agree." She muttered.

They eventually arrived at the building in front of the pier. They push the doors open and enter. The foyer is a complete mess with brochures, maps, clothing and luggage lying around the floor.

"This is it, Estelle. Once we reach the top, we're heading back home." Yuri said enthusiastically. Estelle perks up and a wide smile takes form on her face. The two rush their way towards the staircase.

They climb up several flights of stairs until they reach the top of the building. When they arrive at the door, Yuri and Estelle stood close to each other and place their hands on the handlebar. The two smile at each other and nod their heads before they push down the bar and open the door.

The two soldiers point their rifles at them as they enter the rooftop, causing them to quickly raise up their arms.

"Stop! Don't shoot!" Yuri yelled at them.

"We're not infected!" Estelle cried.

"It's him, Yuri Lowell! Hold your fire!" One of the soldiers said to the other. The two immediately lower their weapons. Yuri and Estelle sigh in relief and lower their arms as the soldiers walk over to them.

"Captain Mathias sent us to pick you and Miss Estellise up. You're both safe now." One of the soldiers said to Yuri.

"Thank you so much." Yuri said to the soldier in gratitude as he extends out his hand. The soldier grabs it and shakes his hand.

"Get aboard the chopper. We're leaving now." The other soldier said, gesturing Yuri and Estelle to follow them. The two soldiers turn around and the four walk their way to the helicopter. One of the soldiers grasps onto the handle and slides open the door.

Suddenly, for a split second, Yuri quickly widens his eyes when he heard the sound of a rocket being launched and it sounded like it is heading towards them.

"What-"

 _ **BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!**_

Yuri was quickly cut off when the rocket hit the side of the helicopter, creating a huge explosion that sends Yuri, Estelle and the two soldiers flying backwards through the air and sprawl through the floor as they land.

The explosion momentarily made Yuri deaf. His vision was groggy at first as he slowly lifts his head up. After a while, he squinted as his sense of sight returned and gets a clear view of the chaos that had happened.

To his dismay and horror, the helicopter that was supposed to get them off the island is now destroyed and burning in flames. The two soldiers lied on the floor motionless and seemingly dead.

He widens his eyes and gasped in horror as Estelle was nowhere in his sight.

"Estelle!" Yuri yelled as he regained his sense of hearing. He swiftly turns his head and his jaw plummeted as he sees Estelle lying on the floor completely still with her eyes closed. "No! Oh God…"

Yuri rolls over and crawls his way over to Estelle. When he is beside her motionless body, he places his head on top of her chest. He sighed in relief as he could feel her heartbeat. He then removes his head and got above her. He opens her jaw slightly, places his hands onto her chest and performed CPR.

After pressing her chest hard a few times, he leans down and holds his head above her opened mouth. But he could not feel any breathing. He repeated the process but suddenly, he got interrupted when someone yelled at him.

"HANDS UP!"

Yuri looks up and sees a man with spiky dark blue hair, purple eyes and dressed in a camo green military uniform walking over while aiming his M14 rifle at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Yuri inquired, glaring at the man.

"HANDS IN THE FUCKING AIR!" The man bellowed, completely ignoring his question and continues walking over to him.

Yuri ignored the man as well and looks back down at Estelle. "Come on. Come on!" He said as he continued performing CPR on her. When the man is near Yuri, he uses the hilt of his rifle to knock him hard on the top of his head.

The impact sends Yuri stumbling backwards and he lands on the floor with a thud. He rolls his eyes back as he passes out.

* * *

"Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!"

Yuri moaned as he could barely a voice demanding him to wake up. He slowly opens his eyes and finds his vision groggy for the second time of the day. After a few seconds, he regains his sight and finds himself in a familiar situation. He is sitting inside a small dark room. He widens his eyes as he spots Estelle sitting right in front of him. She stared at him with a wide-eyed look of horror while being tied to a chair by ropes wrapped around her wrists and torso.

"Estelle!" Yuri cried as he tries to get up. However, he felt that his body is being restrained. He looks down and realizes that his wrists and torso are also being tied to the chair that he is currently sitting on by ropes.

"Yuri…" Estelle sobbed. Yuri looks back up at her and sees that tears are furiously pouring down her cheeks. "I-I-I'm scared…"

"Estelle, it's okay. I won't let anyone hurt you." Yuri reassured to her.

Estelle shakes her head. "You're wrong…this is Alexei we're talking about…"

"Alexei?" Yuri uttered as his eyes widened.

Suddenly, the door opened and a soldier with blonde bowl cut hair dashes into the room and delivers a massive hit to Yuri's gut with the hilt of his rifle. Yuri howled in pain and throws his head forward as he got hit.

"NO! STOP!" Estelle screamed in terror as she helplessly watched.

"Quiet!" The same dark blue-haired soldier yelled as he entered the room and points his rifle at Estelle. Yuri looks up and growls angrily at the soldier.

"Leave her alo-" Yuri got cut off when the blonde-haired soldier hits him on the top of his head with the hilt of his rifle. He yanked Yuri's hair to pull his head up.

"Who are you?! Huh?!" The soldier demanded as he stares furiously into Yuri's eyes.

 _BANG!_

Everybody present in the room turn their heads to the doorway and see a silver-haired man, dressed in a light gray camo military uniform standing there while pointing his pistol upwards.

Estelle widens her eyes in shock and she stared blankly at the man in complete horror and utter disbelief.

"A-A-Alexei…" Estelle managed to choke out as she breathed heavily in an irregular pattern.

Two soldiers step away from the captives, lower their rifles and salute to their superior.

"Yeager, Guradana, at ease." Alexei said. After the soldiers lower their hands, they turn to Yuri and aim their rifles at him. Alexei steps into the room and turns to Estelle. Estelle froze in terror and went temporarily mute as Alexei gave her a dark and stern gaze.

"Hello Miss Estellise. It's been so long since we've seen each other." Alexei said flatly. Estelle remained silent with her mouth agape. Cold sweat furiously runs down the sides of her head as she continued staring at Alexei in complete shock and horror. "But I see…you have not changed."

Alexei now turns his head to Yuri. Yuri narrows his eyes ferociously as he stares back at Alexei.

"So, you are the fucking psycho that Estelle told me about." He said to him flatly.

Alexei steps forward to him. "You sure got a lot of guts talking to me like that." He chuckled at Yuri. "I admire you. You talk my style."

Yuri glances at Estelle for a moment, who still look horrified and stares back at him with tears flooding down her cheeks like tiny rivers. He looks back at Alexei and said with his tone softened, "Whatever you want to do…leave Estelle alone."

A smirk takes form on Alexei's face as he nodded. "You care a lot about her?" He said.

Alexei then turned and holds up his pistol, aiming it directly at Estelle's forehead. Yuri gasped and widens his eyes in horror as Alexei places his finger on the trigger.

"No!" Yuri pleaded.

Alexei turns his head back to Yuri and takes pleasure in seeing the horrified look on his face. However, a moment later, Alexei shifts his pistol away from Estelle and aims it at Guradana instead. Guradana turned to his superior and widens his eyes in surprise just in time before Alexei pulls the trigger and fires a bullet through Guradana's chest.

Guradana's eyes nearly bulge out from their sockets as he got shot, completely surprised and horrified by his superior's actions. Yuri's jaw plummeted as he watched Guradana drops his weapon and falls to the floor in terror. Guradana choked and gasped for air as he places his hands onto his chest wound and rolls side-to-side in pain and agony. A few moments later, his eyes closed and lied motionless on the floor as his soul finally slips away from its body.

Yeager remained calm and silent as he watched the whole thing. Watching his superior mindlessly killing his own soldiers is nothing new to him.

"Care clouds judgment." Alexei said as he walks over to Yuri and cups his chin, forcing him to look back at him. "That is why…I'm stronger than you. But don't worry. I won't hurt Miss Estellise. I need her alive too."

"W-w-why…are you doing this?" Yuri asked with his eyes wide.

"Tell me. Were you a soldier? Have you been to any wars? Any battlefields?" Alexei inquired. Yuri remained silent. "Surely you must have since you have been able to stay alive on this island for so long."

Alexei removes his hand from Yuri's chin as he steps back. "For many years, America played its role as a superpower by bringing and maintaining peace to the world. Whenever a country is in peril, it's our job to fight their wars for them. And yet…what do we get in return? Huh? Rewards? Praise? Respect?" He paused as he shakes his head. "No. We get none of that. We instead get criticism. Every single time a battle or war is over, something catastrophic will always come out from the aftermath. And when that happens, who do the countries of the world blame it on? The terrorists? No! They blame us! They blame _everything_ on us! We resolve their dirty work for them and THIS IS WHAT WE GET IN RETURN?!"

The room was silent for a moment after Alexei lets out his bellow of rage.

"For years, everyone blames the United States for constantly putting the entire world in a state of war!" Alexei continued with an ugly scowl on his face. "They kept saying that nothing we have done has led to resolution or peace." A wide malicious grin slowly sweeps across his face. "Well, if they want resolution and peace so much, fine. I've came up with the perfect solution…to end all wars, so that America will never waste their god damn time and money in fighting another war and be criticized for it ever again."

Alexei leans forward and stares straight into Yuri's eyes. Yuri sat still and didn't make a flinch.

"I'm going to unleash the Rosch virus throughout the entire world." Alexei said icily. "You see, at the bottom of this building, there are lots of infected that we have either gathered or created over the years."

"My friends…" Estelle murmured in horror as she is grimly reminded of how Alexei infected her team right before her eyes.

"And I plan to get every single one of them out of this island. Any nation that still respect and ally themselves with the United States will be spared. But those countries that have constantly condemned and show disdain towards us will be _eradicated_. And now that I finally have Miss Estellise here at my base, I can finally proceed with my plan. I know she had created a cure for the virus."

"How do you know?" Yuri asked.

"Because while we fail to track down her location when she was using whatever to send a signal outside of the island, we did manage to hear one word while listening to her message. _Cure._ " Alexei said with a wan smile. "And that's good. Because when I unleash the virus onto the nations that despise America, some of them may eventually change their minds and beg for mercy. I'll then use Estelle's cure to help eradicate the virus in their nation. _That_ is how you achieve peace, stability and most of all, respect."

Alexei then lifts up his pistol and aims at Yuri. This causes Estelle to scream in terror. "NO! DON'T!" Yeager turns to Estelle and points his rifle at her. This immediately silenced the woman.

"What? Are you gonna kill me?" Yuri asked, glaring at Alexei.

"I'm giving you a choice, sir. If you join me, I'll spare your life and you can be with her again." Alexei said, glancing at Estelle for a brief moment before turning back to Yuri. "But if you refuse, well…" He shrugged. "You know."

Yuri momentarily turns to Estelle who looks back at him horrified. He gave her a small smile. "Everything's going to be okay." He reassured to her.

He turns back to Alexei and lets out a sigh. Then, a smile sweeps across his face.

"Alright." Yuri said to Alexei as he gave him a nod. Alexei smirked and puts away his gun.

"I'm glad we came to an agreement. Let us work together to help make America the most respected country in the world again." Alexei said. He steps forward and proceeds to untie the ropes around Yuri's wrists and torso.

But as soon as Yuri felt the ropes loosening, he swiftly throws his head towards Alexei with the force of a sledgehammer and slams directly against his forehead. As Alexei stumbled backwards, Yuri quickly got up from his chair just as Yeager points his rifle at him. Yuri quickly grabs his rifle and the two wrestled. Estelle watched the fight with her eyes wide.

Yeager at first seems to have the upper hand but Yuri quickly fought back by lifting up his knee and kicks him in the stomach. Yeager groans as he backs away, allowing Yuri to have the opportunity to swing his left fist at his face. He strikes Yeager directly in the cheek, sending him stumbling sideways and hit against the wall.

As Yeager falls to the floor, Yuri turns to Estelle and places his hands on the ropes. "Hang on." He said to her. "I'll-"

 _BANG!_

Estelle's jaw plummeted as a shot was fired. Yuri froze for a moment before he slowly looked down and see a pool of blood forming on his vest. He lets out an agonizing moan as he falls to his knees.

"YURIIIIII!" Estelle screamed in horror as hot tears pour out from her eyes.

Yuri falls to the ground and lay in a bundle. He looks up to see Alexei standing above him with his pistol aimed at him and a trail of smoke came out from its muzzle.

"You fucking asshole. I gave you a choice…and this is how you spat on my face." Alexei said to Yuri flatly with an ugly scowl.

Yuri chuckled as he breathed in an irregular pattern while lying in his own pool of blood. "Dumb shit. I was smiling because I thought what you said was fucking hilarious. I mean, unleashing the virus to the world and make every country fall to their knees? And you call that peace, stability and respect? What a load of bullshit!" He paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "You're absolutely right. I was a soldier. I've been through hell…and for a while…I lost faith in humanity. But unlike you…I don't resort to wiping out entire nations…because that ain't the way to destroy everything that's wrong with this world. Yes…people have constantly criticized us…but I don't give a damn. We never fight their wars because we want admiration. We fight their wars because it's our responsibility! And as long as there is still a single person out there who supports us and worth saving…then these are wars…that are always worth fighting for!"

Alexei stares at Yuri blankly for a moment before a smile plasters across his face and he began laughing. He threw his head back in maniacal laughter, leaning forward and clutching his chest with his other hand. When he lifts his head back up however, he gazed back at Yuri with a scowl.

"Then you sir…are a bigger idiot than I thought." With that, Alexei walks up to Yuri and lifts his foot above his face.

"NO! STOP!" Estelle could scream once in horror before Alexei brings his foot down and knocks Yuri out.

* * *

His vision was blurry, but when he regains his consciousness, he could tell that his arms are being held by two soldiers. As his vision became clearer, he looks up and sees that the soldiers are dragging him over to the ledge of the building's rooftop.

When they reach the ledge, Yuri hung his head and looked down to see the ocean at the bottom of the building.

"Have a good swim." One of the soldiers said before they both proceed to toss Yuri over the ledge. Yuri finds himself plummeting through the air until he splashes into the water.

He lets out a groan which is muffled by the water as he felt the pain surging from his gunshot wound. As the pain became too unbearable for him, he looked upward to the surface of the water as his vision began to fade.

' _Estelle…I'm sorry…'_ Yuri thought somberly before everything went black.

Estelle was gone.

 _He_ had failed.

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out this story. Thanks guys!**


	12. Camp

_**Chapter 12: Camp**_

 _WOOF! WOOF!_

" _What is it?"_

" _Oh my God! Is that…"_

" _Take him back to the camp!"_

" _Guys! We found someone!"_

" _He's badly injured and his breathing is shallow!"_

" _Take him to Mordio! She'll know what to do!"_

" _HEY! ASSHOLE! WAKE UP!"_

Yuri groaned as he suddenly felt a slap across his right cheek. He opens his eyes to see a brown-haired woman sitting beside him on the left. She had a serious glare on her face as she speaks to him.

"Look at me! Look at me!" The woman yelled furiously as she points her fingers at her eyes. Yuri obliged and stares right back at her. The woman softens her tone. "Listen, I'm going to extract the bullet out from your wound. And you better stay absolutely fucking still as I do so."

Yuri turns his head to the front and sees himself lying on a bed, wearing nothing but his pants. He sees an exposed bullet wound at the left side of his abdomen with blood oozing out of it. His wrists and ankles are tied to the head and foot boards of the bed with ropes and he also realized that there is duct tape pasted over his mouth.

He turns back to the woman and sees her holding up a pair of needle-nose pliers. "Are you ready?" She asked.

Yuri stares at her blankly for a few seconds before he solemnly nods his head. Without hesitation, the woman proceeds to jab the pliers into his wound. Yuri's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as the excruciating pain lanced through the side of his abdomen and his agonizing screams were muffled by the duct tape over his mouth.

The woman leans over and takes a closer look at the inside of Yuri's wound. She probes through his wound, trying to search for the bullet while Yuri continues to make muffled screams of intense pain and agony as his body trembled and tears form in his eyes.

Yuri then felt the woman closing her pliers and pulling something out from his body. She removes her pliers from his wound and holds up a bloodied bullet shell. Yuri calms down and breathed deeply as the woman picks up a metal bowl from the floor and drops the bullet shell into it.

After placing the pliers and the bowl down on the floor, the woman turns back to Yuri. "You did good, sir. But that was only round 1."

The woman bends down again and this time, she picks up a flare from the floor. Yuri widens his eyes as she opens the flare and huge amounts of flames and smoke burst out from the top.

"I'm going to use this to close your wound. Again, are you ready?" The woman asked. Yuri's eyes softened and he nods his head again.

The woman proceeds to jab the flare onto his wound, causing Yuri to muffle his screams of pain and agony again under the duct tape. The woman slowly slides the flare through the wound like a marker. It worked as the flare closes the wound and stops the bleeding.

When she is done, the woman inserts the flare into a bucket of water placed on the floor next to her to extinguish it. Yuri sobbed in pain as he tries to calm himself down after the torturous surgery he went through. His vision became groggy as he is about to faint from the extreme amounts of pain he endured.

"Well done, sir. You should feel better now. Get some rest. You deserve it." The woman gave a gentle pat on Yuri's shoulder before the soldier closed his eyes and passed out.

* * *

Yuri moaned as he woke up from his sleep. He slowly lifts his head up to see that he is still wearing nothing but his pants. But now there are bandages rolled around his abdomen. His wrists and ankles are freed and his arms are now lying comfortably on the sides of the mattress. The duct tape over his mouth is also gone.

He rose up from his bed, getting himself into a sitting position. He wipes off the tears from his eyes which were still flooded in them after the surgery he had.

Yuri lets out a soft gasp as he looked up and saw the wooden door in front of him opened. A man with short blonde hair and blue eyes entered while carrying a tray of food. He is dressed in the same camo green military uniform as Yeager, causing Yuri to panic. He quickly gets up from his bed and got into a fighting stance but the man widens his eyes in shock and holds up a hand as he backs away.

"Whoa! Stop!" The man pleaded.

"Who are you?!" Yuri demanded angrily.

"Sir, please. I won't hurt you. None of us will. I swear." The man said calmly. Yuri continued glaring at the man for a moment until he actually recognized his voice. It was the same voice he recalled telling two women to take him to a certain person named Mordio. Yuri then lowers his arms as his rage dissipates and he sat back down on the bed. The man sighed in relief. "Sir, I can tell you must have gone through a lot judging by that bullet wound you had. But I assure you, you are safe now. Nobody here is going to hurt you."

"Who are you? And where am I?" Yuri inquired as he calmed down.

The man smiled as he walks over to him. "I'm Captain Flynn Scifo. You're in our safe haven." He sat next to Yuri and places the tray of food on his lap. Yuri looks down and sees that the tray contains a banana and some slices of apple and watermelon.

"Well, actually this place used to be a holiday camp but we converted it into a safe haven to keep ourselves away from the infected." Flynn explained.

Suddenly, there were a few knocks on the door. Yuri and Flynn turn to see the same woman who did the surgery standing at the doorway. She is dressed in a dark red long-sleeved collar shirt, a pink tie around her neck and collar, a black headband on her head, a black skirt, black stockings and dark red shoes.

"How's my patient doing?" The woman asked with her arms folded and leaning against the doorway.

"He's fine, Rita. And he's able to stand up properly too." Flynn said to her. He then turns back to Yuri. "Sir, I'm sure you remember her. She's the person who saved your life. Her name is Rita Mordio."

Yuri gave a nod to Rita. "Thank you, Rita." He said to her with gratitude.

"Don't mention it." Rita shakes her head nonchalantly. "I'm just relieved that you managed to survive all that fucking shit I put you through. What's your name by the way?"

Yuri eats a slice of watermelon before replying, "Yuri Lowell."

"I see. Well, if you're done resting, you can get up and look around our camp if you want." Rita then turned around and closed the door behind her.

Flynn chuckled. "Don't mind Rita. She may be cold but deep down; she still has a good heart. We're lucky to have her in our camp anyway. Back in Houston, she worked as a professional surgeon."

"Well, you know what they say. Don't mess with Texas." Yuri said. The two men laughed and Flynn gave him a pat on his thigh.

Yuri ate an apple slice as he stares at Flynn's military uniform. After swallowing his food, he asked his next question, "Flynn, are you with the US military?"

"Yes." Flynn nods his head.

"Were you sent to this island seven years ago along with 25 scientists and 29 other soldiers?"

"Yeah." Flynn narrows his eyes in confusion. "How…do you know all of that?"

"I was sent here onto this island by a friend of mine from the military weeks ago. My mission is to find and rescue a scientist named Estellise Sidos Heurassein." Yuri explained.

Flynn widens his eyes and drops his jaw. "Estelle?! She's still alive?!"

"Yes." Yuri nodded. "She sent a distress signal to the military and they hired me to rescue her. I did found her..." He paused for a moment as he lowers his head and his eyes grew cold. "But then a rogue soldier named Alexei found us…and we got separated."

Flynn's face distorts into a scowl as he clenches his fists tightly. "Alexei Dinoia…that bastard." He said icily. Yuri turns his head back to Flynn who stares at him boldly. "Yuri, you've got to tell Colonel Fedrok about this. He must know."

"Fedrok?" Yuri widens his eyes. "You mean Niren Fedrok? He's here?"

"Alive and well." Flynn said. He gestures Yuri to follow him. "Come on. It's time I give you a tour of our camp."

Yuri puts aside his tray of food before he and Flynn get up from the bed and walk to the door. Flynn places his hand on the doorknob and turns it. He opens the door to reveal what was outside Yuri's cabin. Yuri widens his eyes in awe as they stepped out. There are two vertical rows of identical wooden houses built on both sides. Between the two rows of houses is a fairly large field filled with all sorts of fruits and vegetables grown on it such as watermelons, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes.

Surrounding the entire camp is a metal fence with a military truck parked in front of its sliding entrance.

"After Niren, Schwann and I escaped from Alexei, we travelled to this side of the island and found this camp. Here, we found tourists who survived and escaped the virus outbreak at the hotel." Flynn explained. "Because we never found any sort of communication device to contact the outside world for help, we've been staying here ever since."

Yuri and Flynn then walk down a small flight of steps and place their feet onto the grass. They walk over to the field where there is a blue-haired woman kneeling down, pulling out some fresh carrots from the ground and placing them into a wooden basket. Her hair is tied to a bun and she is dressed in a sleeveless black vest with a long-sleeved white collar shirt underneath it, a blue ribbon around her neck and collar, black skirt and brown sandals.

"Hey Judith, how's our crops doing?" Flynn asked.

"Fine and fresh." Judith turns her head to them before she stood up and wipes her hands on the sides of her skirt. "How's the newcomer? Is he alright?"

"Yup, he's fine." Flynn said. He introduced Judith to Yuri. "Yuri, this is Judith. She's in charge of our food here in our camp."

"Nice to meet you, Judith." Yuri said, extending out a hand.

"Likewise, Yuri Lowell." Judith said to him with a tender smile as she grabs his hand and shakes it.

"Woof! Woof!" Yuri and Flynn turn their heads and see a dog with blue and white fur barking at them in a distance.

"Hey Repede!" Flynn smiled. He claps his hands, signaling the dog to dash over to him. The dog gave a low howl as Flynn kneels down and rubs his head affectionately. He turns his head to Yuri. "Yuri, this is Repede. He's the one who found you lying motionless on the shore."

A warm smile plasters across Yuri's face as he kneels down to Repede's level and rubs through the fur on his neck and back. "Thank you Repede. I owe you one." He said. Repede responded with a friendly woof.

"And we helped bring you back to our camp." A voice said. Yuri turns his head to the left and sees two identical-looking women walking over to them. Both women have long red hair, tied to ponytails and dressed in light blue tank tops, dark blue jeans and black shoes.

"It's good to see you alive and well, sir." One of them said as Yuri stood up. ""My sister and I went outside of the camp with Repede to collect water from the beach. That is until Repede found you lying on the shoreline and we brought you here to get treatment for your wound. My name is Hisca Aiheap."

"And I'm her sister, Chastel Aiheap." The other woman said as she places her hand on her chest.

"Nice to meet the both of you, I'm Yuri Lowell." Yuri said to the twins. "I must say, both of you look really identical. I can't tell either of you apart."

"Yeah, we are identical." Hisca and Chastel both said and chuckled in unison. Flynn blushed for a moment as actually; there _is_ a way to tell which one is who. But he decided to keep quiet.

Flynn places his fist in front of his mouth and coughed, getting Yuri's attention. "Shall we head to Colonel Fedrok's cabin now?" He asked Yuri.

"Right. I almost forgot." Yuri said. He bid farewell to Judith, Hisca and Chastel. The three women wave their hands at him as he and Flynn walk off and head to Fedrok's cabin.

As they walk through the camp, three children ran past them and laughed, causing the two men to stop and back away.

"Hey kids! Watch where you're going!" Flynn cried.

"Sorry Mr. Scifo!" One of the kids, who is a boy with spiky brown hair and dressed in a light green and white shirt, dark yellow pants and black shoes, said before turning his head back to the two girls who he is playing tag with.

Flynn chuckled as a warm smile sweeps across his face. "That's Karol Capel." He said to Yuri. "And the other two kids are Patty Fleur and Nan. They sadly lost their parents during the outbreak, but they are fortunate to be alive."

The two men continue walking their way to the wooden house located at the very end of the right side of the camp.

"For the last seven years, we stick together, gather food and water together, fight against the infected together and most importantly, look out for each other. We're not just friends. We're like a family." Flynn said.

Yuri sighed dejectedly. "Family, huh?" He muttered as the horrible memories of his childhood came flooding back into his head.

He remembered how much of a worthless person his father was. After the death of his mother, his father constantly abuses him physically and blames him for her death. But that was a false accusation. In reality, when his mother fell ill after getting diagnosed with cancer, his father did spent his money on her medication, for only a month. Afterwards, because the payments for her medication were too great for him, he stops caring about his wife out of selfishness and instead spends his money on alcohol and constantly drinks to get himself away from reality. He became lazy and neglectful, forcing Yuri to do all the housework and caring for his mother instead.

When his mother eventually died, his father became a more violent person, to the point that Yuri no longer acknowledges him as his parent. When Yuri turned 18, he quickly left the house and moved to a military school. He breezed through all the rigorous and extensive training thanks to the violence and abuse he put up with his father.

Then, just a few months after being enlisted into military school, his father fell ill and diagnosed with his own cancer. He died a few more months later. But Yuri made a request to his school's commandant to allow him to leave briefly to attend his father's funeral, which he granted him permission. On the day of his funeral, Yuri didn't shed a tear as he doesn't acknowledge the man being buried as his father. Nevertheless, he still attended his burial service, only to prove to him that he's not a monster like him.

Before he knew it, Yuri finds himself standing in front of Fedrok's cabin. Flynn goes over to the door and knocks on it.

"Who is it?" A voice inquired from the other side.

"Captain Scifo, sir." Flynn replied. "And I brought the patient with me."

"Come on in."

Flynn turns to Yuri and gave him a wan smile as he nodded. Yuri walks over to him and the two enter the cabin together.

Inside the cabin, they find a tall and muscular man with spiky light gray hair, dressed in a light gray camo military uniform, sitting on a bed.

Sitting beside him on a wooden chair is a blue-eyed man with black hair, tied to a messy ponytail and dressed in a white lab coat with a dark green collar shirt underneath, purple pants and black sandals.

Flynn salutes to the light gray-haired man. The man gave him a solemn nod.

"At ease." He said.

"Colonel Fedrok, this man is Yuri Lowell." Flynn said, gesturing to Yuri. "He was sent by the US military from the mainland weeks ago to rescue a friend of ours."

"A friend?" Fedrok asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes." Yuri said as he steps forward. "Do you remember the name Estellise Sidos Heurassein?"

Fedrok and the black-haired man widen their eyes and drop their jaws upon hearing the name. "Estelle?! Are you telling me she's still alive?!" The black-haired man asked incredulously.

"Yes, she is." Yuri said to the black-haired man. "You must be Dr. Schwann Oltorain, am I right?"

A huge grin broke out on Schwann's face. He burst out laughing a few seconds later and he slaps his knee. "Oh, what a miracle! My dear friend Estelle is still alive after all these years. Hahahahaha!" He lets out a sigh after his laugh. "And yes, Mr. Lowell. You're right. I am Dr. Schwann Oltorain. But please refer me by my nickname…Raven."

Yuri smirked and folds his arms. "Nice to meet you…Raven."

"Why did the US military sent you to rescue Estelle, Yuri Lowell?" Fedrok asked solemnly.

Yuri turns to the Colonel and narrows his eyes. "Because she had successfully created a cure to the Rosch virus." He said. Everybody else present in the room gasped in shock.

"She did what?!" Flynn asked with his eyes widened.

"That damn girl…" Raven uttered. "I knew she would surpass us all one day."

"The unfortunate thing though is that I did found her. We stick together for a while…" Yuri lowers his head in regret as he clenches his fists tightly. "But then Alexei found us…and he took her away from me."

Fedrok grumbled to himself before slamming his fist on the mattress of his bed. "Colonel Alexei, that man has no morals." He said flatly. "He never liked me and his fellow soldiers, thinking that we are weak for letting the American government brought shame to our country by apologizing to Russia and the entire world for what we did to a small Soviet village during 1990. That's why he committed a massacre on us at the experimental labs, so that no one can stop him from commencing his plan to unleash the virus to the entire world and, in his own messed-up belief, make every nation respect and obey America again."

"What do we do now?" Raven asked concernedly. "Without Estelle, we cannot eradicate the virus and free ourselves from this island."

"Don't worry about the 'freeing' part. I have a transceiver with me that I can use to contact my friend to get us all out of here." Yuri said. "As for Estelle, I promise all of you." His brows furrowed. "I will rescue her from Alexei…and at the same time, make that bastard colonel pay for what he did and stop his insane plan."

Flynn places a hand on his shoulder. Yuri turns his head to him and Flynn gave him a small smirk. "If you're going to rescue Estelle, count me in. I got your back." He said.

"Thanks." Yuri said as he smiled back at him.

"But first, you might want to put on your clothes and shoes. In case you didn't notice, you are shirtless the whole time." Fedrok said to Yuri with a mischievous smirk.

Yuri looks down and widens his eyes, realizing that the Colonel is right. He is still half-naked and bare-footed ever since he woke up from his sleep. He groans and slaps his forehead in embarrassment while Flynn, Fedrok and Raven chortled.

Fedrok got up from his bed and turn around. He kneels down and pulls out Yuri's vest, folded uniform and boots from the bottom of his bed. He stood up and hands it to Yuri.

"Here you go. I believe these belong to you." Fedrok said to Yuri. Yuri smiled at him as he takes back his clothing and boots from the Colonel.

He places his boots on the floor before putting on his uniform and vest. When he finished putting on his clothes however, he arches an eyebrow when he noticed that one of the pouches on his vest look slightly bulky.

He inserts his hand into that pouch and widens his eyes when he felt something.

"What is it?" Flynn asked.

Yuri takes out the object and uncurls his fingers, revealing a small round-shaped device. Fedrok and Raven gasps as they see the object.

"That's a tracking device!" Raven cried.

"What? How did it get in there?" Yuri said incredulously.

"Only one person I know who has hold of the military's tracking devices back at the experimental labs…Alexei." Fedrok said flatly.

Yuri and Flynn exchanged surprised looks with each other.

"He probably put this device inside my pouch while I was unconscious to really make sure I'm dead." Yuri uttered. "Fuck me."

Suddenly, the door swings open. Everybody turned to the doorway to see Rita standing there while catching her breath. She also had a shotgun in her left hand.

"Guys! This is bad!" She said as she looks up at them with her eyes wide in horror.

"What is it, Rita?" Raven asked as he stood up from his chair.

"A truck arrived outside our camp. We thought they are new survivors seeking refuge. But instead, they brought and release an entire horde of infected here!" Rita cried.

Yuri, Flynn, Fedrok and Raven all froze with their eyes widened and mouths agape in shock and utter disbelief.

"The truck contained infected?!" Flynn asked incredulously. "How is that possible?"

"It's Alexei." Yuri murmured with his eyes shaking. Everybody else turned to him. "When we met face-to-face, he told me that at the bottom of his base-of-operations is filled with infected that he and his men gathered and created over the years." He paused for a moment to take a gulp. "His men are here and they brought the infected to your camp after tracking down my location." He grimly lowers his head in guilt. "This is my fault. I have brought danger to your safe haven."

"No." Fedrok said flatly. Yuri turned to him. "It's not your fault. After all, you're not the only one Alexei wants to kill. He wants to kill us as well, making sure that everybody on this island except him is dead. So this is our fight for survival too."

"Look, I don't give a rat's ass whose fault this is. If we're done wasting time, let's get out there and help the others now!" Rita yelled in frustration. "Judith, Hisca and Chastel are outside fighting the infected. The children and Repede are safe inside their cabin. Come on!" She pulls back the fore-end of her shotgun before turning around and heading back into battle.

"Don't beat yourself over it, Yuri. What matters now is to fight our way out of this mess." Flynn said solemnly to Yuri.

Yuri nodded his head in response. "Let's do it."

"Everyone!" Fedrok yelled. "Arm yourselves!"

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey and Telitah for reviewing, supersmach for following and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out this story. Thanks guys!**


	13. Fight For Survival

_**Chapter 13: Fight For Survival**_

Yuri, Flynn, Raven and Fedrok rush out of the cabin after arming themselves with rifles. They see several infected dashing through the camp while making blood curling screams. Some of them stop and turn to see the four men standing in front of the cabin.

The infected screeched as they run towards them. Yuri, Flynn, Raven and Fedrok immediately hold up their guns and fire. They slowly walk and enter the field as they shoot down every infected running directly towards them.

Suddenly, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the infected and they scream in agony as they burn right in front of the four men.

They turn to their left to see Judith waving her hand at them while Rita, who is standing beside her, fires a huge blast at a couple of infected with her shotgun. Judith quickly turns her head away from the men and shoots down some infected with her rifle.

"There's Judith and Rita! Let's help them out!" Fedrok ordered. As the four men run over to Judith and Rita, some more infected chase after them from behind. Yuri and Flynn turn around and fire at the pursuing infected as they follow Raven and Fedrok from behind.

When Yuri and Flynn turn back to the front, an infected dashes over to Raven and tries to grab him but a bullet shot through the side of his head, killing him.

The four men turn their heads to the right and see Hisca and Chastel kneeling behind the wooden fence of their cabin, both armed with sniper rifles. Hisca gave a quick salute to them before looking back through the scope of her rifle and continues firing at the infected to provide cover for the men.

As the infected who are chasing the men from behind fall down one by one, Yuri and the others reached Judith and Rita. Raven and Fedrok knock down the two infected who are in front of the women from behind and fire their rifles at them while they are on the ground.

"Judith, Rita, you two okay?" Fedrok asked as he turned to him.

"We're good si-AAAAHH!" Judith suddenly shrieked in pain as a bullet shot through her shoulder, causing her to drop her rifle.

"Judith!" Rita yelled in horror as she quickly wraps an arm around her as she lost her balance. Flynn turns around and widens his eyes in terror as he sees a sniper hiding behind the enemy military truck which is parked behind the metal gates.

"DOWN!" He shouted. Everybody duck down just in time before the sniper fires another bullet, which barely misses Flynn's head.

"CHASTEL! TEN O'CLOCK!" Hisca yelled at her twin sister. Chastel quickly turns her sniper rifle slightly to the left and spots the sniper. She fires a shot at him. The enemy sniper yells in agony as the bullet shot through his chest and he falls to the ground. An enemy soldier who was hiding behind the truck comes out of his hiding spot and removes the safety pin of his grenade.

Yuri holds up his rifle and shoots down the soldier but he had already tossed the grenade into the air.

"Fall back!" Fedrok yelled. He, Yuri, Flynn, Raven, Judith and Rita quickly turn around and got away. The grenade landed inside the crop field. The explosion destroyed the entire field and all of the fruits and vegetables. But thankfully, no one was within the perimeter and hurt by the explosion.

When the smoke is clear, everyone turns back to the front and see a second military truck approaching the camp.

"Are you shitting me? A second one?" Rita muttered under her breath while continuing to support Judith.

"Then we'll just keep fighting till our last breath." Yuri said to everyone.

Flynn, Fedrok and Raven solemnly nod their heads before they hold up their rifles.

Yuri turns to Rita and extends out his hand. "Rita, pass me your shotgun. You stay back and take care of Judith."

"Let's see what you got, soldier." Rita passes her shotgun to Yuri. Yuri grabs it from her before turning away.

"Let's go!" Fedrok yelled. The four men then dash over to the front of the camp while Rita carries Judith over to the stairway leading to Yuri's cabin and set her down.

"We'll continue to provide you all cover!" Chastel yelled at them as they ran past her and Hisca. The two twin sisters place their sniper rifles onto the fence and look through their scopes. Flynn sees Judith's rifle lying on the ground and picks it up.

As they ran, the second military truck parked in front of the gates. The backdoor of the truck opens itself and a horde of infected ran out.

The soldier which tossed the grenade earlier groans as he slowly lifts himself up. But his eyes widened and his jaw plummeted in horror as he sees the infected charging towards him. The soldier lets out a scream before an infected tackled him back to the ground. Four more infected ran over and they viciously gnaw all over the soldier's limbs.

The other infected make their way to the gates and began climbing over it. When Yuri, Flynn, Raven and Fedrok see this, they stop and fire their rifles at the infected, preventing a single one of them from climbing over the gates. Hisca and Chastel also help out in shooting down any infected Yuri and the others miss.

As Yuri and the others are focused on firing at the infected, a soldier with long blonde hair and wears glasses came out of the military truck with a grenade launcher in his hand. The soldier aims his weapon at the gates.

Raven sees the soldier and gasped. "NO!" He shouted as the soldier fires a grenade at the gates. The gate exploded, killing the surrounding infected. The infected who survive the blast or weren't near the perimeters see Yuri and the others in front of them and they screech loudly as they dash madly at them and enter the camp.

Yuri puts away his rifle and draws out Rita's shotgun. Flynn on the other hand lifts up both his and Judith's rifles in his hands. They continued firing mercilessly at the charging infected.

Raven swings his rifle at an infected who was near him. The infected gets knocked back and Yuri quickly fires his shotgun at him.

Fedrok kept firing his rifle until it ran out of bullets. He turns to Yuri and shouted, "Yuri! Your rifle!"

Yuri fires another blast with his shotgun at a group of infected before he takes out his rifle and tosses it to Fedrok. Fedrok catches it and continues firing at the infected.

Raven and Flynn continued firing at the infected until their rifles eventually ran out of bullets. Yuri continuously fires several blasts at the infected who are nearing towards him with his shotgun until it also ran out of shells.

Fedrok sees this and said to the three men, "We should fall back."

They nod their heads at the Colonel in agreement. Yuri, Flynn and Raven put away their weapons before they and Fedrok turn around and run away. A huge group of infected chased after them from behind. Some of them fell to the ground after getting shot by Hisca and Chastel but eventually, they ran out of bullets as well.

Hisca and Chastel briefly turn to each other before they got up and jump over the fence. They ran over to Yuri and the other men and they all ran together to the back of the camp with a still sizeable group of infected dashing behind them.

When they arrive at Yuri's cabin, Judith and Rita step out of it while carrying several Molotov cocktails in their hands.

"Come on guys! We can still fight back!" Rita yelled furiously at them as she and Judith quickly pass them a Molotov each.

Yuri and the others then turn back to the infected who are advancing towards them. Everyone step forward and throw their Molotov cocktails at the infected. When the cocktails hit the ground, it created a huge fire, burning all the infected at once. The infected let out loud agonizing screams as they burn to a cinder.

They successfully kill all of the infected, but the fire wildly spread through the grassy field. It head towards Hisca and Chastel's cabin and began burning it.

"I guess we overdid it, didn't we?" Judith asked.

"But at least we're not staying here anymore! Let's grab the children and get the hell out of here!" Fedrok yelled.

Everybody ran through the field as the fire spread to the other cabins. They head over to the children's cabin but when they arrive in front of it, the door burst open and the long-haired soldier steps out of it while pointing his pistol at Karol, Nan and Patty. Everybody immediately froze in horror.

"Don't move." The long-haired soldier said icily to them. "Take another step, and I'll blow their heads off."

"Guys! Help us!" Nan cried as her eyes are flooded with tears.

"Please!" Karol added in horror.

"SHUT UP!" The soldier bellowed at them.

"You bastard!" Rita shouted angrily. The soldier turns his head to Rita and shot an icy glare at her. Rita kept her eyes narrows and her teeth gritted as she isn't intimidated by his cold expression.

"Garista." Fedrok said flatly as he glared at the soldier. "How does it feel being a cold-blooded psychopath like Alexei?"

"Alexei and I aren't psychopaths!" Garista snapped at them. "We are the world's saviors! We are finally going to eradicate all the problems happening around the world by unleashing this virus. As they say, if you want to get rid of your problems, you got to find the roots. And the roots of the problems the world is facing now are the people living in countries that refused to listen to reason from America. It's because of them, terrorism never cease to exist. But with Alexei as our leader, we shall-"

Suddenly, Garista was interrupted by a loud ferocious growl. He turns around in time to see Repede leaping over the children's heads and sinks his teeth into Garista's left arm. Garista lets out a scream of extreme pain as he falls to the ground and Repede finds himself standing above him.

He growls as he furiously shakes its head, sinking his sharp teeth into Garista's arm even deeper and causing blood to ooze out from his wound.

Garista fights back by swinging his fist across Repede's face. This causes Repede to back away and removes his teeth from his arm in the process. Garista then delivers a hard kick to Repede's stomach, causing the dog to squeal in pain. The children gasp in horror as they watch Repede landed in front of them.

Garista then aims his gun at Repede. "Die, you filthy-ACK!" He cried in pain and drops his weapon as he felt something just stabbed into his back. Flynn yelled angrily as he quickly runs over to Garista and grabs the hilt of his combat knife that is stuck on the soldier's back. He removes it and brings the knife down onto Garista's abdomen, pinning him to the wooden floor in the process.

Garista trembled as he looks up at Flynn with his eyes wide. Flynn got up and stares back at him with an ugly scowl.

"Leave…the dog…alone…" Flynn growled with his voice quivering with rage. He turns his head to the children who stare blankly at him. Flynn calms himself down and gave them a weak smile.

"You're safe now." He said softly to the three children. Karol and Nan smiled back at him while Patty helps Repede up.

"Come on, let's go!" Fedrok yelled, gesturing Flynn, Repede and the children to follow him. Everybody made their way to their own military truck, leaving Garista lying on his own pool of blood.

The soldier turns his head when he heard footsteps. Garista's eyes widened and his jaw plummeted in horror as he sees an infected staggering towards him.

"N-n-no! STAY BACK!" Garista shouted. The infected growls at him before she proceeds to gnaw at the soldier mercilessly. Garista flails his arms and legs around as he screams in agony.

Meanwhile, Fedrok opens the back of the truck and enters. He turned around and help Karol, Nan and Patty get inside the truck. Afterwards, he sees Judith and Rita slowly approaching and he extends out his hand. Judith slowly removes her arm around Rita before grabbing Fedrok's arm. Fedrok pulls her up and sets her down beside the children. Rita, Repede, Raven, Hisca and Chastel then enter the back of the truck by themselves.

Yuri gets onto the driver's seat and places his hands on the steering wheel. Flynn removes the safety pin of a grenade which Fedrok gave him and tosses it at the metal gates in front of them. Because the main exit had been blocked by the enemy trucks, they would have to create a new one.

The grenade explodes, forming an opening for them to drive out of the camp. Flynn then gets into the front of the truck and sat on the passenger seat.

Fedrok slides open the window behind Yuri and Flynn and said to the two, "Floor it!"

However, as soon as Yuri steps on the gas pedal, a new enemy truck suddenly appeared and drives over to the opening that Flynn had just made. This causes Yuri to quickly tap the brakes after moving the truck by only a few inches.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Flynn shouted, completely flabbergasted.

"What do we do now?" Yuri said. Fedrok stared at the current situation that they're in. The enemy truck has completely blocked their opening and they have another horde of infected ready to release upon them. There's no way they can fight back the infected as his rifle has very little bullets and the others have no ammunition left at all. They could try driving over the-

Fedrok angrily shakes his head. No, that's not a wise idea as constantly ramming the infected with their truck would damage their only form of transportation left in escaping their burning hideout. Not to mention, the soldiers in the enemy truck may have weapons that they can use to shoot down their vehicle anyway.

Fedrok backs away from the window. He glances at the passengers who are sitting behind him as he inserts his hands into his pockets. He removes his hands and looks down at the two grenades he is holding.

He sadly closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh. It looks like there is no other option. Fedrok turns around the passengers and gave them all a solemn nod. Everybody look back at him in bewilderment.

"It's been an honor fighting alongside all of you." Fedrok said grimly. Yuri and Flynn gasped and turn around upon hearing what he said.

"Colonel?" Flynn said in horror.

"Fedrok, what the fuck are you talking about?" Rita said incredulously as her eyes widened in horror.

"No Fedrok! There has to be another way!" Hisca cried.

Their cries fell into deaf ears as Fedrok drops his rifle onto the floor and casually walks past the passengers.

"Colonel!" Flynn shouted.

"FEDROK! NO! DON'T DO THIS!" Chastel screamed as tears form in her eyes. She tries to get up but Raven wraps his arms around her to restrain her.

"I'm sorry Chastel. He has made his decision." Raven said solemnly as everyone watch Fedrok step out of the truck.

"NO!" Chastel snapped as her tears are now pouring out from her eyes. "I won't accept this! FEDROK!"

Fedrok walks over to the front of the truck and opens the door. Yuri and Flynn turn their heads to him. Fedrok flashes a wan smile at them.

"Colonel…" Flynn murmured sadly as his eyes softened.

"Flynn, you're in charge of the survivors now. Keep them safe and get them out of this island." Fedrok said before giving Flynn a pat on his shoulder. He then turns to Yuri. "And Yuri, promise me you will rescue Estelle."

Yuri narrows his eyes and nods his head solemnly. "You have my word." He vowed. Fedrok's lips form into a smirk.

"Yuri, Flynn…Thank you." He said before closing the door. Fedrok turns to the front just as the enemy truck began opening the back doors, releasing the infected.

Fedrok's face distorts into a scowl. He holds up his two remaining grenades and bites onto the safety pins. He pulls them out and spits the pins onto the ground. Fedrok then dashes towards the truck as the infected began entering the camp.

"Come on…COME ON!" Fedrok shouted with fire burning in his eyes. The drivers in the enemy truck see Fedrok advancing towards them and they widen their eyes in horror.

"REVERSE!" One of the drivers yelled. The enemy truck moved away from the opening while the infected charge towards Fedrok.

The infected try to grab Fedrok, but the colonel pushed and tackled through them with the strength and agility of an American Football player. When he is near the enemy truck, he holds up the grenades into the air. The enemy drivers briefly scream in horror before the grenades exploded, killing both the horde of infected and destroying the enemy truck in the process.

Yuri and Flynn watched the entire display wordlessly. They are both completely awestruck by the heroic sacrifice that Fedrok had pulled off.

Flynn momentarily hangs his head and bites down on his lower lip, mourning over the death of his superior. He then turns his head to Yuri.

"Move." Flynn said flatly. Yuri nods his head before he steps on the gas pedal. When the smoke cleared, Yuri sees that there is now an opening for their truck to fit through thanks to Fedrok for making the enemy truck reversing away from their exit.

Yuri drives through the opening and everybody departs the camp. The passengers sitting at the back turn their heads to their former camp as the truck drove off. They see their cabins and the enemy truck parked outside of the opening all engulfed in flames.

Chastel buries her face into Hisca's chest and sobbed over the death of Fedrok. Hisca wraps her arms around her sister and pats her back to comfort her.

Rita turns her head away from the camp and lets out a heavy sigh while Repede rests on Judith's lap. Judith's eyes softened as she gently strokes Repede's back.

Flynn stares blankly at the side view mirror of the truck and watch the burning camp which had been his home for the last seven years disappearing from his sight as they continue driving away.

* * *

As Yuri drove on, he told everyone present in the truck that he had decided to face Alexei alone and it will be Flynn's duty to get them to safety. With Judith injured and with very little ammunition left, everyone obliged. When Flynn asked Yuri if he knows where Alexei's hideout is, he replied no. But he remembered that when he was being thrown off, he sees that the building is built in front and above the sea. This made Judith remembered that the only building in all of Cocoon Island that is built above the sea is the hotel. She knows this because she used to be waitress over there before the virus broke out.

Yuri thanked Judith for the information and heads towards the hotel. When they arrived at an open field, Yuri stops the truck and gets out. Flynn also gets out and the two soldiers close the doors.

"Are you really sure you can do this alone?" Flynn said as he and Yuri walk over to each other. "I told you before that I got your back, right?"

Yuri smiled at him and places his hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate the help but…" He paused momentarily to shake his head. "I really have to. Fedrok said that you are in charge of the survivors now. So it's your job to take them to safety. If you get the others involved in this, Fedrok's sacrifice will be for nothing."

Flynn sighed sadly before nodding his head. "I understand." He said softly.

Yuri takes out his transceiver from one of the pouches of his vest and hands it to Flynn. "Use this to contact my friend. His name is Captain Nolan Mathias. Request him to send a helicopter over to the island. The coordinates of the pickup point is N45, E22. After you and the others get to safety, call Nolan to send a second helicopter to the hotel." He explained.

Flynn nods his head again as he takes the transceiver off of Yuri's hand.

"Good luck out there." Raven said as he and the others walk over to Yuri and Flynn. Yuri turns his head to them and sees everyone giving him smiles and solemn stares at him.

"If you fail to save Estelle and die out there, I won't forgive you." Rita said with her eyes narrowed.

"I won't." Yuri said. "I swear I'll save Estelle and make Alexei pay for what he did and all the people he had killed. Including Fedrok."

"Kick his ass." Chastel managed to choke out as she stares at Yuri with tearstained eyes. Hisca stood to her and nods her head. Judith walks over to Yuri and hands him the rifle which Fedrok dropped. Yuri grins at her before he takes it from her and places the weapon on the back of his vest. Judith smiled back at him and gave him a pat on his shoulder before turning around and walking away.

Patty, Karol, Nan and Repede then walk over to Yuri.

"Stay safe, Mr. Lowell." Patty said to him.

"You won't die, right?" Nan asked him with a worried frown. Yuri kneels down to her level and gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm a strong person, Nan. I can look out for myself." He said softly to her as he affectionately strokes her head. Tears began pooling up in Nan's eyes. She and the other children proceed to give Yuri a warm hug. Yuri chuckled as he wraps his arms around all of them.

After a few moments, Yuri and the children pull away from their hug. "Be good, kids." Yuri said to all of them. Nan, Karol and Patty nod their heads before turning around and leave.

Repede goes over to Yuri and licks his cheek. Yuri chuckled again and he rubs his hand on the dog's head.

"Help Flynn look after the survivors, okay?" He said to Repede. Repede responded with a woof before walking away. Rita, Raven, Hisca and Chastel gave Yuri solemn nods and everyone head back into the truck.

Yuri stood up and turns back to Flynn. He sees him extending a hand to him. Yuri grabs his hand and they both shake.

"I really hope to see you again." Flynn said.

Yuri remained silent as Flynn turns around and gets into the driver's seat. He stares at Yuri one last time before closing the door and starts the ignition. He turned around and looked through the back window. After making sure the other survivors have seated, Flynn turns back to his front and drive away, leaving Yuri behind standing in the open field.

Yuri draws out his shotgun and rifle and examines both weapons. After making sure they are fine, he puts them away onto the back of his vest.

He turns around and stared solemnly at the sunset. He walks up the hill in front of him. When he reached the top, he sees the hotel located below and in the distance. Yuri takes a deep breath. He is about to enter the building where it all happened. It is where the infamous terrorist Yaag Rosch unleashed his virus upon the island.

And now, after seven years, he is going to end it.

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey and Mao Mao for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**


	14. Be A Hero

_**Chapter 14: Be a Hero**_

"I'm going to take a puff. Keep an eye on those…things." A soldier said to another as he puts away his rifle. He walks away from the metal gates surrounding the entrance of the hotel.

The soldier walks over to a tree and lean against it. He then takes out his cigarette and a lighter.

As soon as he places the cigarette into his mouth though, Yuri suddenly jumps down from the large branch above the soldier and lands right on top of him. He quickly gets off the soldier and pulls him up by the back of his vest. He then turns the soldier around and slams his head right against the trunk of the tree several times. Yuri drops the soldier to the ground and he loses consciousness.

He quickly drags him to the back of the tree, completely unnoticed. Yuri kneels down and quickly opens every pouch on the soldier's vest. He managed to find three grenades and some ammunition for his rifle and gladly takes them. Yuri examines the ammo clips and puts them into the pouches of his vest.

He also sees a combat knife sheathed inside a pouch wrapped around the soldier's right leg. Yuri removes the knife and sheathes it into his machete pouch. His machete had been taken away from Alexei when he was captured so the knife will serve as its replacement.

Yuri stood up and pokes his head out from the back of the tree. He is currently facing the left side of the hotel and took a look at the metal gates surrounding the entrance. Behind the gates, the infected screeched and growled as they squeeze their fingers through the fence and maneuver their mouths through the links, trying to grab and bite the soldiers standing in front of them. There are barbed wires installed on top of the fence to prevent them from climbing over. Some lifeless infected corpses lie on top of the barbed wires to serve as a grim reminder to what happens when they try to go over.

Two soldiers laugh as they watch the infected trying to squeeze through the fence links in vain.

"Mindless fucks." One of them remarked with a grin.

"They can growl all they want, but they will never get through the gates." The other soldier said before they turn around.

Yuri turns his head to the left and sees an unguarded door. He lies down on the ground and crawls his way over to the door. He took advantage of the tall grass to conceal himself from the soldiers who are guarding the gates. Despite the soldiers turning their heads side-to-side to survey their surroundings for intruders, they could not spot Yuri crawling his way over to the left side of the hotel.

When he finds himself in front of the door, Yuri quietly gets up from the ground and looks at the keypad next to it. He enters the passcode and hears a click at the door. He places his hand on the handle and opens the door.

"Thanks Judith." Yuri said as a smile plasters across his face. "I owe you one."

Yuri slowly enters the hotel and closes the door behind him. He snorted as he shakes his head.

"I sure wonder who the real mindless fucks are." He uttered to himself. Yuri turns around and looks around the room he is currently in. He is inside the hotel's kitchen. There are blood stains splattered everywhere in the area from the stoves and counters to the marble tiled floor.

"So this building is where it all began." Yuri commented.

He takes out his rifle and walks through the kitchen. He removes the near-empty clip from his rifle and puts it away into one of his pouches. He then takes out a fully-loaded clip and inserts it into his weapon.

When he arrived at a huge pair of doors, he slowly pushes them open and steps into the enormous dining area of the hotel's restaurant. He gasped when he sees hundreds of infected staggering around the area. He quietly goes over to the nearest table and hides behind it.

Yuri pokes his head out and watched the infected move around. Thankfully, none of them noticed him, but he certainly needs to find an alternate path to get through them. He turns his head to the right and widens his eyes when he noticed something. He spots a ventilation cover at the right wall of the restaurant. Yuri glances back at the infected before he puts away his rifle and crawls over to the cover.

He held his breath for as long as he can as he crawls through the floor. When he reached the vent cover, Yuri quietly releases his breath in relief. He gets up into a kneeling position and takes out his combat knife. He uses the knife like a screwdriver to loosen the tight screws securely holding the vent cover in its place.

After successfully detaching all four screws and thankfully not getting the infected's attention in the process, Yuri slowly removes the cover and places it aside. He puts the knife back into his machete pouch and gets inside the shaft.

He crawls through the tunnels of the shaft, making his way out of the restaurant. He kept crawling until he sees some light shining through the grilles at the side of the tunnel. He goes over to the grilles and turns his head. He widens his eyes in horror as he sees what is behind them.

The hotel foyer is filled with more infected mindlessly tottering around the area. Some of them have their heads thrown back and screeching in agony. There are blood stains, clothes and suitcases scattered across the floor. Yuri can't imagine how horrifying the images of the massacre that had happened here might have been first-hand.

After regaining his composure, he continued crawling and navigating through the shaft.

Eventually, he reached the end of the shaft and look through the grilles of the vent cover. Yuri sees that he has reached a guest room. He slowly gets himself into a kneeling position and kicks the cover with his leg several times until he successfully boots it off of its hinges. When the cover lands on the ground, he gets out of the shaft and enters the room.

Yuri looks around the area as he wipes off the sweat from his forehead. He sees that the room is empty, with the exception of four corpses lying on the floor. Three of the bodies are headless infected corpses with their decapitated heads lying nearby. The last one is a dead body that has been covered by a blanket.

Yuri carefully walks past them and momentarily stops in front of the covered body.

"Sorry to intrude, sir." Yuri bowed his head to the lifeless body before heading over to the windows. He opens the windows and looks down. He sees the metal gates surrounding the entrance of the hotel below, as well as several soldiers standing in front of them and the hundreds of infected placed behind.

Yuri takes out a grenade from one of his pouches on his vest and looks down at it.

"Let's start the party." He said. He proceeds to remove the safety pin from the grenade. He aims at the metal gates and tosses the grenade at them.

Yuri stood at the window and watched it landing right behind the metal gates. The soldier, who was standing in front of where his grenade had landed, turned around in confusion as he heard a sound.

The soldier looks down at the ground and widens his eyes. "What the-"

 _ **BOOOOOOMMMMM!**_

The remaining soldiers turn to the explosion, completely startled. When the smoke is cleared, they are horrified to see that a section of the metal gates had been destroyed. The infected see the opening that Yuri had created for them and they let out ferocious screeches as they immediately run over to the opening and breach through it.

"DON'T STAND AROUND! OPEN FIRE!" One of the soldiers yelled. The soldiers quickly hold up their rifles and began firing at the escaping infected. They are able to shoot down the first wave of the infected, but as soon as their weapons ran out of bullets, this allows the other infected to quickly run over and tackle them to the ground before the soldiers had any chance to reload their rifles.

The soldiers scream in pain and agony as the infected gnaw at them or tear off their clothing and flesh.

After watching the massacre he had created, Yuri turns away from the windows and makes his way out of the room. He opens the door, turns to his left and dash through the hallway.

When he reached the end, he opens the door and runs down the stairs. He arrives at the second floor and looks down. He sees that at the bottom, there are two soldiers standing behind the door which leads to the foyer of the hotel. Between them and the door is a metal gate which is installed as extra security to prevent the infected from coming inside.

The two men are both startled and confused as they heard the loud screeching coming from behind the door.

"What the hell is going on outside?" The soldier asked the other.

"No idea. But at least we'll be safe here." The other soldier replied.

What he said prove to be a tragic mistake as Yuri unpins his second grenade and tosses it at the metal gate.

The two soldiers look down and widen their eyes in horror at the grenade.

"LOOK OU-" That was all one of them had to say before it explodes. Yuri quickly runs up the stairs and returns back to the same floor he had been before.

He sprints through the hallway and reached the other end of it. He opens the door and climbs up the stairs. As he climbed, he could hear loud screams which is a mixture of the loud screeching of the infected and the agonizing cries of Alexei's soldiers. There's no doubt by now, he would have attracted Alexei's attention as well.

"Hang on Estelle, I'm coming for you." Yuri muttered under his breath.

After climbing up three floors however, Yuri quickly stops and backs away when a bullet is fired and landed right in front of his foot. He looks up and sees a soldier pointing his rifle at him.

"Don't move!" The soldier yelled at Yuri. Suddenly, the door beside him burst open and an infected pounces onto the soldier, making him drop his weapon.

"AH! GET OFF OF ME!" The soldier cried helplessly as he whirls around, trying to get the infected off of his back. The infected lets out a howl before sinking her teeth onto the soldier's shoulder, causing him to shriek.

Yuri draws out his combat knife and goes over to the infected from behind. He holds up his knife and brings it down onto the infected's back, making her screech in pain. Yuri then pulls the infected off of the soldier's back and tosses her down to the bottom of the flight of stairs and removing his knife in the process. Yuri yells as he pounces onto the infected and as he lands on top of her, he stabs his knife into her chest, killing her instantly.

Yuri then gets off the infected and removes his knife. He turns back to the soldier who is shaking and rolling over the floor in pain. Yuri knows he is going to turn into one of them very soon. He gets out his rifle and aims at the suffering soldier.

"Sorry, sir." He uttered before he fires a well-aimed bullet into the soldier's head. The soldier instantly stops rolling and lies on the floor motionlessly.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Yuri could hear another soldier screaming from the open door. He runs up the stairs and turns his head to the hallway. He widens his eyes as a horde of infected pinning four soldiers onto the floor and viciously gnawing at them. Despite their best efforts, the soldiers could never fight and push the infected back.

Yuri is surprised that the infected had already reached this high up after only a few minutes since he started the massacre. Some of the infected look up and see Yuri standing at the doorway. They roared at him ferociously.

"FUCK!" Yuri shouted before he quickly closed the door and continued running up the stairs.

When he reached the top of another flight of stairs, Yuri could hear the door bursting off from its hinges and the infected began running their way up. This causes Yuri to sprint faster than he ever did before.

However, after climbing up three more floors, Yuri sees that the next flight of stairs is blocked by several suitcases and a hotel luggage trolley. This causes Yuri to turn to the door beside him and enter another hallway. When he reached the middle, he whirls about as sees the infected reaching the door and running over to him.

"COME ON!" Yuri shouted at them as he began firing at the infected. "I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!"

Yuri slowly backs away as he continuously fires at the advancing horde of infected. Several infected fall onto the floor dead as the bullets shot through their heads and bodies.

After Yuri's rifle ran out of bullets, five remaining infected charge towards him. Yuri puts away his rifle. He steps forward and kicks the nearest infected to the floor.

When he turns to the second nearest infected, he draws out his combat knife and slashes it across his throat. As the infected rolls his eyes back and slumps to the floor, Yuri turns to the third infected and quickly stabs his knife into the side of his head. He then pushes the third infected against the wall just as the first one recovered and got back up to its feet.

Yuri turns to the first infected and kicks him in the stomach, causing him to fall onto the floor again. The fourth infected grabbed Yuri from behind and before he could bite him, Yuri quickly bends over and tosses him to the floor.

Yuri swiftly turns around and swings his fist across the fifth infected, sending her sprawling through the floor.

He turns back to the lifeless body of the third infected and removes the combat knife from the side of his head. As the first infected got up from the floor again, Yuri throws his knife at his forehead, killing him instantly.

As the fourth and fifth infected recovered and got up from the floor, they both charge at Yuri. Yuri turns to the fifth infected and swiftly grabs her arm. He whirls about and throws her at the fourth infected, sending them stumbling onto the floor.

Yuri yells as he runs over to the two remaining infected and kicks off the fifth one off of the other. The fourth infected roared at Yuri one last time before he quickly stomps his foot onto his head, killing him instantly.

He then grabs the fifth infected by the collar of her blouse and pulls her up. He then places his hand behind her head and yells again as he charges over to the wall and smashes her head against it. Yuri then releases his grip and the infected falls to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall.

Yuri takes a quick break to catch his breath before he goes over to the lifeless body of the first infected and removes the knife from his forehead. After he puts it away, he turns around and makes his way to the left end of the hallway.

He reloads his rifle as he ran. As he opens the door, he sees a soldier firing his shotgun at a group of infected. Despite being able to shoot down several of them, he eventually runs out of bullets and the two remaining infected pounce onto him and pin him to the floor.

The soldier cried for help as soon as they did. Yuri quickly fires his rifle at the infected, getting them off of the soldier. When the soldier removes the dead infected off of his body however, he widens his eyes and drops his jaw in horror and sees that his left arm and right leg have been bitten.

He turns to Yuri who walks over and stands above him.

"Kill me." The soldier begged.

Yuri sighed before he aims his rifle at the soldier's forehead and fires a shot. After killing the soldier, he puts away his rifle and kneels down. He opens the soldier's ammo pouch, found some shotgun shells inside and takes them all. He takes out his shotgun which originally belonged to Rita and inserts the shells into it. After pulling back the fore-end of his shotgun, he gets up and continues running up the stairs.

After climbing up two floors, he looks up and sees that the stairs are blocked again by another pile of suitcases and a luggage trolley. Yuri turns to his right and opens the door beside him.

"FIRE!"

Yuri gasped as he sees a group of soldiers kneeling down at the middle of the hallway. He quickly gets out of the way as soon as they fire their rifles. As he hides behind the door, he could hear loud screeching from the infected coming from below. He knows that there are more of them coming their way up.

He closes his eyes and kneels down as he stayed hidden behind the door. He could hear the infected arriving and runs through the doorway that Yuri had opened for them.

The soldiers yell as they fire at the advancing infected. But despite their best efforts, the number of infected charging towards them is overwhelming. The surviving infected reach the soldiers and tackle them to the floor.

Yuri could hear screaming and agonizing cries from the soldiers as he kneels behind the door. He pokes his head out to make sure that all of the infected have entered the hallway. When the coast is clear, Yuri closed the door.

This got the attention of the infected who were standing near the doorway. They turn around and suddenly, Yuri fires a huge blast from his shotgun, destroying the door and killing the infected who were near it.

Every infected in the hallway turn to Yuri and dash over to him. Yuri continuously fires his shotgun at the infected as he slowly walks down the hallway. With every blast he made with his shotgun, he shot down several infected, making his job in clearing out the hallway easier for him.

When the soldiers fully transformed into their new infected forms, they rose from the floor and dash over to Yuri. Yuri turns to the newly-turned infected and fires all of them down with his last shotgun round.

As he reached the middle of the hallway, he turns around and sees another group of infected entering through the doorway.

Yuri quickly takes out his third and final grenade and removes the safety pin. He tosses it at the group of infected, turns around and pounces to the floor.

When he landed, the grenade exploded, killing the entire group of infected. Yuri coughed as smoke consumed the hallway. He then gets up from the floor when it cleared. He turned around and took a brief look at the destruction he had created. Afterwards, he turns his head back to the front and puts away his now-emptied shotgun.

He runs over to the other end of the hallway. Yuri opens the door and climbs up the stairs. He kept going upwards until he reached the thirtieth floor, which is the highest guest room floor of the hotel. He opens the door and stopped.

Yuri sees that standing right in front of him and at the middle of the hallway was Yeager, holding onto his own combat knife tightly with his right hand.

"Yeager, right?" Yuri said as he glared at his enemy.

Yeager snorted in response. "You never should have come back here." He said icily to Yuri.

"I've come back here to save Estelle. And you're certainly not going to stop me." Yuri said as he steps forward. "Now where is she?"

"Don't worry about her. She's still alive. In fact, she and Alexei are waiting for you at the rooftop." Yeager gestures to the red door beside him. "Too bad I cannot allow you to see her again. But you can save all of your troubles by shooting me with your guns right now."

Yuri stopped when he is near Yeager by a short distance. He shakes his head at him and draws out his own combat knife. A lopsided grin takes form on Yeager's face.

Yuri slightly tilts his head to the side and he said flatly to Yeager, "Let's get this over with."

The two men yell as they charge towards each other. When they are near each other, Yeager swings his knife horizontally. Yuri dodged by sliding through the floor and slashes Yeager's lower leg with his knife.

Yeager yells in pain as he turns around and sees Yuri quickly getting up. Yuri ran forward to him and swings his knife horizontally at him. Yeager dodges his attack by backing away. He quickly brings his knife up and swings it vertically at Yuri. Yuri kneels down and blocks the attack by holding up his knife and the two stayed at a stalemate.

The two men push their knives against each other for a moment until Yeager managed to push Yuri back, sending him falling to the floor. Yeager brings down his knife at him but Yuri quickly rolls over. However, as Yuri gets up, Yeager turned and swings his knife vertically at him, damaging Yuri's vest and slashing across his chest.

Yuri cries in pain as he backs away from Yeager who stood up from the floor. Yeager slashes his knife diagonally at him but Yuri quickly dodges his attack by rolling over the floor. Blood is now pouring out from his chest wound as Yuri gets up and holds up his knife in front of his face. He stared boldly at Yeager as he stood still.

Ignoring the pain coming from his leg, Yeager dashes at Yuri and swings his knife diagonally again. Yuri stepped to his right and the attack missed. Yeager turned to Yuri and slashes his knife horizontally at him. Yuri dodges his attack again by ducking down and swiftly stabbing the knife to the side of his abdomen. Yeager lets out an agonizing scream and drops his weapon as Yuri pushes him and pins him against the wall.

As Yeager looks down at him with his eyes wide, Yuri removes his knife from his abdomen. He lets out a yell as he looks up at Yeager and brings his weapon down at his chest. Yeager stops him by grabbing his wrist. He grits his teeth as he tries to restrain Yuri. However, Yuri overcomes his opponent by pushing back. He yelled again as he slowly lowers his knife and the blade sinks into Yeager's chest.

Yeager lifts his head up and choked as the knife stabbed through his chest. He lets out one final gasp before his eyes rolled back and his head slumped to the side.

Yuri then removes his knife and tosses Yeager's body to the floor. He breathed heavily as he stared blankly at his opponent's lifeless corpse. He briefly looks down at his knife which is now covered with blood. He swings his knife to flick off the blood before putting it away into his machete pouch.

He turns to the elevator which is located at the middle of the hallway. Next to it is the red door. Yuri walks over to the door and opens it, revealing a staircase. He looks up and sees that it is only a few flights of stairs leading up to the rooftop of the hotel. At last, he will be able to see Estelle again. But unfortunately, Alexei will also be waiting for him up there.

He narrows his eyes and said under his breath,

"Estelle…I'm coming for you. And Alexei…I'm going to take you down."

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**


	15. The Final Battle

_**Chapter 15: The Final Battle**_

Yuri hastily climbs up the stairs, making his way up to the rooftop. When he reached the top, he draws out his combat knife and kicks the door open.

He slowly enters the rooftop and looks around. The area is empty. The only noticeable thing he sees on the rooftop is that the floor has a trail of blood leading to the doorway which he just went through.

Then, he heard a click.

Yuri turns around and widens his eyes. He sees Alexei pointing his pistol at him while wrapping a hand over Estelle's mouth, muffling her.

"Drop your knife." Alexei demanded. "Now!"

Yuri momentarily glared at Alexei before turning to Estelle. He sees tears welling up in her eyes. Yuri sighs as he reluctantly obliged. He tosses his knife away and holds up his hands.

Alexei chuckled and shakes his head. "You really can't let go of your feelings for her, can't you? By the way, how's your wound?"

Without warning, Alexei lifts up his leg and made a direct kick onto the left side of Yuri's abdomen, sending him falling to the floor. Estelle tried to scream in horror upon seeing the display, but she is muffled by Alexei's hand. Yuri yells in pain and agony as his wound opened and blood oozes out from it again.

"This is why people like you and Claire Farron only bring shame to our country!" Alexei yelled as he looks down at him. "Because you people don't have the guts to do what's necessary!"

After catching his breath, Yuri looks up at Alexei with an intense glare. "Necessary? Unleashing the Rosch virus to the entire world and infecting billions of innocent people is _necessary_?!"

"Of course it is, you god damn idiot! When there's no one left to challenge and condemn America, there will be no more wars. There must be sacrifices, and they are worth it."

"Go fuck yourself, you corrupt and twisted asshole." Yuri said.

Alexei narrows his eyes at Yuri for a moment before he lifts up his pistol and aims at his face. "You truly are weak-minded, Yuri." He said as he places his finger in front of the trigger. "And that's why our country should not have people like you."

"STOP!" Estelle yelled after she managed to remove Alexei's hand from her mouth. She quickly swats Alexei's arm away, making him fire his gun but completely missed Yuri. Estelle turns around and punches Alexei's left cheek, knocking him back.

She turns back to Yuri and runs over to him. But Alexei quickly recovers and fires his gun at Estelle.

"AAHHH!" She shrieked as a bullet shot into her back, much to Yuri's horror.

"ESTELLE!" Yuri shouted as he gets up and catches her. As he lays her down on the floor, he widens his eyes and drops his jaw in mortified horror as he sees the bullet wound on Estelle's back and blood is coming out from it.

"Yuri…" Estelle managed to whisper before she closes her eyes and passes out.

"No! Don't do this!" Yuri cried as he trembled. "Please Estelle, wake up!" He shook her but she lay still on the floor. "WAKE UP!"

"Look what you did! I wanted her alive! And now she's dead because of you!" Alexei bawled at Yuri as he furiously jabs his finger at him.

Yuri quivered in rage as he looks up and shot a glare at Alexei. How dare this psychopath blame him for what happened to Estelle? He shook angrily as Alexei's accusation reminded him of his father. How he too blame him for someone else's death. He slowly stood up and curls his hands into tight fists.

"ALEXEEEEIIII!" Yuri bellowed as he made a mad dash at him.

Alexei holds up his gun and aims at Yuri. But before he could shoot, Yuri plunges at him and collided his head against Alexei's gut, causing the Colonel to drop his gun. Yuri tackled Alexei to the ground and punches across his face twice.

He tried to punch a third time, but Alexei stops him by grabbing his wrist. He tries to break it but Yuri rolls over and got himself free of his grip.

Alexei yells as he gets up and charges at Yuri. Yuri quickly dodges him by stepping aside. The two men turn to each other and both took fighting stances.

They both stare at each other boldly and stood still, waiting for the other to make the first attack.

After a few moments, Alexei made the first move. He whirls about and swings his leg at Yuri. Yuri dodges by backing away and he dashed forward. He swings his fist at Alexei, who swats his arm away and lands a punch at Yuri's left cheek, causing him to stumble backwards.

Alexei then let loose a series of punches at Yuri, hitting him in the face and stomach. He finishes it by delivering an uppercut under Yuri's chin, sending him falling to the floor. Yuri could feel blood trickling down from the side of his mouth. He looks up and gasped as he sees Alexei bringing down his fist at him. Yuri quickly rolls over and Alexei ends up punching the floor.

Yuri gets up but Alexei goes over and punches him in the gut, making him bend down. Alexei laughed as he grabs Yuri's hair and lifts his head up, forcing him to look into his eyes.

"You're right Yuri. I am a psychopath." Alexei said before he brought his head down at Yuri, hitting him directly on his forehead. Yuri groaned as he stumbles backwards. "But look at how powerful I have become when I don't show care and mercy for others!"

Alexei grins evilly as he swings his fist at Yuri, hitting him directly at his left cheek. He swings his other fist, hitting Yuri again, this time at his right cheek. Alexei then finishes it off by lifting his leg up and kicking him at his chest, causing Yuri to spit blood out from his mouth and sends him sprawling through the floor.

"Face it Yuri. You are weak. You can never stop me." Alexei said to Yuri as he lies on the floor. The Colonel flashes a smirk at Yuri before he turns and walks over to his pistol.

Yuri groans as he lifts his head up and sees Estelle still lying on the floor motionless. He frowned as tears well up in his eyes. Despite his best efforts, he could not defeat Alexei and save Estelle in the end. His mission is a failure and now, he is going to die. He closes his eyes, letting his tears run down his cheeks.

"Estelle…I'm sorry…" He said softly as he lays his head back on the floor. "I'm so sorry…"

As he lies on the floor hopelessly, he dreamed of days gone by. He dreamed of the days with Estelle.

* * *

" _Yuri, have you ever eaten strawberry sorbets?" She asked while staring at the ceiling._

 _Yuri turns to Estelle as he removes the hair ribbon, letting his long dark purple hair hang freely. "Yeah. A long time ago. Sorry I don't eat desserts often but when I do, they taste great." He said._

" _How do they taste like?"_

" _They taste sweet…cold…and juicy."_

 _A wan smile sweeps across Estelle's face as she nods her head. "I miss eating them. They were always my favorite dessert." She said._

" _When we get back to America, I'll rent a whole ice cream shop for you." Yuri said._

 _Estelle's smile widens as she places her hands on her chest. Yuri smiles at her before he lies down on his bed and places his blanket over his body._

" _Yuri…" Estelle uttered. Yuri turns back to her._

" _Yes?" He asked._

" _Thank you…for helping me." She said._

 _Yuri turns to the ceiling and sighs. "You're welcome."_

* * *

 _Estelle continues staring back at Yuri for a few moments before she gently places her hand on Yuri's cheek. Yuri pushes away the strand of hair that is in front of Estelle's eyes and closes his eyes. Estelle closes her eyes as well and the two lean forward to each other._

 _Their lips pressed against each other and they both pull themselves into a warm embrace. Yuri finds himself falling onto his back while Estelle lands on top of him._

 _He momentarily removes his arms from Estelle to unzip his bulletproof vest. Yuri then wraps his arms around her again and his hands roam over her back. As they pressed their bodies together tightly, they kissed with great ferocity and moan into each other's mouth. Estelle found herself losing the control she had hoped to maintain and she lets out a cry of satisfaction._

 _This managed to snap Yuri out of his thoughts as he looks back at Estelle. After realizing what they are doing, Yuri pulls himself away from Estelle and turns his head to the side. "We should stop." He said._

" _How come?" Estelle asked curiously._

" _I…I would get an erection." Yuri said as his cheeks blushed crimson. Estelle chortled in response._

" _Yeah and…doing this on an island full of infected people isn't the best idea, huh? Hahahaha!" Estelle laughed._

 _Yuri looks back at Estelle and smiled. This is the happiest expression that he has ever seen from her._

" _Yuri, thank you for keeping me alive." She said to him with gratitude._

" _You're welcome." Yuri said. "I love you, Estelle."_

 _Estelle smiled back at him as she places her hands on his chest. "I love you too, Yuri." She leans down and plants a kiss on Yuri's forehead._

* * *

Yuri snaps his eyes open and gasp as he swiftly shot upright from the floor. He turns back to Estelle's motionless body and stared at her in realization. He can't give up right now. He just can't. It is because of Estelle, he has made it this far. She gave him a reason to become a hero and have faith in humanity again. And even if she will never wake up again, he can still save humanity. He must stop the infection.

He must stop Alexei.

He turns his head to Alexei who had picked his gun up. The Colonel turns back to Yuri and smirked evilly as he points his gun at him. "So long, Yuri." He said. Alexei pulls the trigger and fires a bullet at him.

As he does, Yuri swiftly rolls over and dodges the bullet. He narrows his eyes as he gets up from the floor. He yells angrily as he charged at Alexei.

The Colonel tries to fire his gun at him again but Yuri lands a punch at Alexei's right cheek, making him drop his gun again and sending him stumbling backwards. Yuri grabs Alexei by his shoulders and kicks him in the stomach with his knee.

Alexei yells as he throws his fist at Yuri's abdomen. Yuri dodges the attack by jumping back. He then steps forward and delivers an uppercut to Alexei's chin, making him stumble backwards again.

Before Alexei could recover, Yuri delivers a barrage of punches to his stomach, making him gasp in pain. Afterwards, Yuri backs away and swings his leg across Alexei's face, breaking his nose in the process and sending him falling to the floor with a huge thud.

Alexei groaned as he slowly gets up and felt blood trickling down from his nostrils. Yuri goes over to him from behind and grabs him by the back of his shoulders.

"I have enough…" Yuri pulls Alexei up and turns him around. "Of your bullshit!"

Yuri delivers a swift punch to his gut, making Alexei cough blood out of his mouth. He then punches him across his left cheek. Before he could fall to the floor, Yuri grabs him by the back of his hair.

"You think being a psychopath gives you power?! You're wrong!" Yuri yelled at Alexei before he took a dive and slams the Colonel's face onto the floor. He then pulls Alexei's head up and stared boldly at his bruised face. Alexei breathed slowly as his nose is broken with blood coming from his nostrils and he could barely keep his eyes open. "Power doesn't come from fear. It comes from respect. Especially from the people you love."

Yuri rises from the floor and pulled Alexei up with his right hand. He turns to the front edge of the rooftop. He lets out a yell as he dashes forward while dragging Alexei with him. When he is near the edge, Yuri tosses Alexei forward and sends the Colonel falling off of the rooftop.

Yuri finds himself dropping to the floor and as he does, Alexei turns around and drops out his own combat knife. He stabs the knife into Yuri's extended right arm, causing him to let out agonizing scream that rent the chilly night air. Alexei held tightly onto the knife as it tears Yuri's flesh vertically as it sinks. Yuri looks down at Alexei wide-eyed. The Colonel stared back at him with madness and malevolence in his eyes. Blood pours out from Yuri's wound and it drips onto Alexei's cheeks and forehead.

"Like I said Yuri, you can never stop me!" Alexei shouted, ignoring the splashing of Yuri's blood onto his face. "So pull me up or we will both die!"

"YURI!"

Yuri gasped as he turns his head and sees Estelle running over to him with his combat knife in her hand. When she got near, she throws the knife over to Yuri who catches it. He turns back to Alexei with a cold glare. Alexei drops his jaw and widens his eyes in horror as without hesitation, Yuri swiftly stabs his knife right into Alexei's hand, causing him to let go.

"AAHH YURRRIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

Alexei lets out one final scream as he plummets down to the bottom of the hotel, his cries soon drowned out by the loud screeching of the infected. Yuri watched the Colonel fall to his death and fade into the large gathering of infected below.

He turns to Alexei's knife which is still sink into his right arm. He removes it and throws it down to the bottom of the building. He lies on the floor silently for a few moments. Then, he felt himself being dragged away from the edge and pulled up by someone.

"I got you." Estelle said softly as she slowly turned Yuri around and gently sets him down on the floor. Yuri gazed up at Estelle as his right arm flopped uselessly onto the side. Most people would have fainted from the excruciating pain. But for Yuri, he managed to completely ignore it thanks to the warm presence of Estelle kneeling beside him.

Estelle stared wordlessly at Yuri as tears form in her eyes. "You…you came back…" She managed to choke out.

A warm smile plasters across Yuri's face. "I came back for you." He replied.

Estelle closes his eyes and bit down her lower lip, letting her tears pour out from her eyes and splash onto Yuri's face. She then leans down and kiss onto Yuri's lips passionately. Yuri closes his eyes and finds himself kissing her back as he places his left hand onto her back.

After a few moments, Estelle pulls herself away from Yuri, who removes his hand from her back. She turns to his left hand and sees that it is covered with blood, knowing that it came from her wound on her back. She then turns to Yuri's other hand and sees blood pouring out from the open wound on his right arm at an alarming rate.

Both Yuri and Estelle know that they are losing blood. If they don't get help soon, they will slowly die from blood loss. But as they are trapped in a tall building filled and surrounded by thousands of infected, is there any way out for them?

Estelle turns back to Yuri and stared at him. "What do we do now?" She asked in despair.

Suddenly, Yuri widens his eyes and Estelle lifts her head up as soon as they heard the sound of a helicopter. They look skyward and to their surprise, they see a military helicopter approaching and shining their light at them.

Yuri chuckled as his teeth broke out into a grin. "Flynn…you magnificent bastard…"

Then, everything went black.

* * *

 **Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!**


	16. A Battle Worth Fighting For

_**Epilogue: A Battle Worth Fighting For**_

"Yuri? You awake?"

Yuri sighs as his eyes groggily open. His vision was blurry at first but after a while, he finally managed to make out the fan whirling around at the ceiling. As soon as he woke up, he immediately realize that he couldn't move his right arm.

"Can you hear me?"

Yuri then carefully rose up with his left arm and sits up straight in his bed to see the person who has been sitting in front of him on a chair.

"Nolan?" Yuri said softly.

"Hi Yuri. It's been a while." Nolan said with a warm smile as he leans forward. Yuri then looks around the room that he and Nolan are currently in. They are in what seems to be a small medical ward. He looks down and sees that his wounded right arm is lay firmly set in place by a heavy cast and sling. Using his free left arm, he lifts up the sheets and sees heavy bandages covering the chest and abdomen wounds he received from Yeager and Alexei respectively.

"You're safe now Yuri. After we got you out of Cocoon Island, we brought you here to patch you up. Thankfully, the doctors say you're no longer in critical condition but you still need to rest in bed for a week or two, so relax." Nolan explained.

Yuri nods his head as he allows himself to lie back down on his bed. However, he gasped and his eyes snap open when he suddenly remembered someone important to him.

"Estelle!" He cried as he shot upright from his bed. "Is she-"

"Don't worry Yuri, she's fine." Nolan reassured him quickly as he holds up his hands. "As well as the other survivors you've rescued from the island. In fact, they were actually here a while ago but when you were slowly beginning to regain consciousness, I told them to leave so that I can chat with you privately."

Yuri sighs heavily in relief as he settled down. "How long was I out?" He inquired.

"For twenty-three hours to precise." Nolan replied. "I have to admit. This whole mission caused me and my boss a lot of trouble for the last eighteen days, especially after the deaths of two of our soldiers." Nolan paused for a moment to scratch his head. "But in the end, you succeeded. You saved Miss Heurassein and with her help, we can finally eradicate the Rosch virus and bring peace back to the islands of Cocoon and Stellar. Refugees can even finally return back to these islands after we have cured the infected. The entire world owes you a huge debt, Yuri Lowell. Thank you." He ended with a solemn bow of his head.

Yuri smiled at Nolan and bows his head back at him.

"What happens now?" Yuri asked.

"Well, after you, Estellise and Judith recover from your injuries; we will send you and the other survivors back to the mainland. Estellise and Schwann will remain working for the military for a while though because we need their help to develop the vaccine to eradicate the Rosch virus." A smirk then takes form on Nolan's face. "But I promise you. Once they are done working for us, we'll return them back home safely too."

"I understand." Yuri said. "But promise me this. While Estelle is working for you guys, make sure you serve her lots of strawberry sorbets."

Nolan stared blankly at Yuri for a moment before he broke out a laugh. "Okay then." He replied. "I'll make sure of that."

"Good." Yuri said with a grin. "One more thing…who is your boss anyway? You still haven't told me."

Nolan momentarily stayed silent until he stood up from his chair. "The only way I can answer that is if you enlist yourself back into the military. Would you like to?" He said as he places his hands behind his back.

Yuri chuckled. "I'll think about that."

"As you wish." Nolan flashes a quick smirk at Yuri before making his way out of the ward. He leaves the door open as he walks out, allowing a certain pink-haired woman to enter the ward.

A huge smile plasters across his face as Yuri sees the visitor. "Estelle."

"YURI!" Estelle squealed ecstatically as she sees him awake and well. Immediately, she rushes over to his bedside and wraps her arms around him, pulling Yuri into a warm embrace.

Yuri yelps and flinches a bit as Estelle's hug accidentally triggered a fresh wave of agony through his body.

"Oh." Realizing her blunder, Estelle quickly breaks her hug and backs away from Yuri. She blushed sheepishly as she apologized. "Sorry."

After gasping for air, Yuri looks back at Estelle and gave her a warm smile. "It's okay. How's your wound?"

"The doctors apply bandages around my body to cover the wound on my back. I'll be fine." Estelle replied.

"That's good." Yuri said. "How about we try that again and see if this time, we can get it right without hurting me."

Estelle giggled as she nods her head in agreement. She slowly walks over to Yuri and wraps her arms around him again, this time doing it gently and carefully not making contact with his chest wound.

Yuri then wraps his left arm around Estelle and carefully not placing his hand on the wound on her back as he does so. The two snuggled contentedly into their warm embrace, smiling and resting their heads onto each other's shoulders.

Tears of happiness then roll down from their cheeks as both are overwhelmed with bliss and relief that they have made it out of Cocoon Island alive and well. Now that they are out of danger, they can finally live the rest of their lives together happily. And for the first time in seven years, Estelle is finally free from fear. As long as she had Yuri by her side, she will never be afraid for her life ever again. They both stayed in their hug, never wanting to let each other go for a long time.

"Don't mind if we come in?"

Yuri and Estelle snap of their thoughts and turn their heads to the doorway to see Rita standing there with her arms folded.

"Were you watching us, Rita?" Yuri asked her with a mischievous smirk while Estelle chuckled as she strokes her own hair.

"Yeah. Can't believe you're quite the stalker, Rita." Raven said to Rita as he steps forward and stood next to Rita.

"I'm certainly am not!" Rita protested as she stomps her foot angrily. "I just want to come into the room and see Yuri awake, that's all!"

"Are you really that concerned over him? Guess you do have a soft heart." Judith said as she stood behind Rita.

Rita turns around to come face-to-face with Judith. "Hey, I'm a surgeon after all. Making sure people are feeling better is my top priority." She replied to her.

Yuri and Estelle smiled at them as they wipe off their tears from their eyes. Rita sighed as she turns around and enters the room along with Raven, Judith, Flynn, Hisca, Chastel, and the children.

"Yuri! You're alright!" Karol yelled in delight as he, Nan and Patty ran past the adults and rush over to Yuri's bedside.

"I told you all I can look out for myself." Yuri said to the three as he rubs Karol's head. The three children giggled in response.

"Thank you for saving us, Yuri." Patty said to him with gratitude.

"You're welcome. But give Flynn credit too. He also did his part in getting you guys out of the island." Yuri said to the children. Then he looks up at Flynn and the two smiled at each other. "And he saved me and Estelle too. Thank you Flynn, I knew I can count on you."

"You're welcome." Flynn said as he bowed to Yuri and Estelle.

Suddenly, there was a loud bark. Everybody present in the room turn to the doorway to see Repede dashing in.

"Repede!" Yuri cried happily as the dog makes his way to his bedside. Estelle and the others step aside to allow Repede to climb onto the bed and happily lick Yuri's cheek. Yuri laughed as he rubs his head affectionately. Afterwards, he gently pushes Repede away from his face and the dog rests on his lap.

"It's nice to see you again, buddy." Yuri said softly to the dog and he strokes his hand through the fur on his back. Repede whined in response.

"What are you going to do now, Flynn?" Estelle asked.

Flynn shrugs his shoulders before scratching his chin. "Well, I'm thinking of quitting the military. After everything that had happened, I'm officially done."

"I don't blame you." Yuri said.

"The first thing I want to do when we return back to America is seeing my parents again. I gave them a call when we first got aboard on this ship. Imagine the overwhelming amount of shock and joy they had the moment they learn that their son is still alive." Flynn said. "Afterwards, I'll settle down by working in my family's business. I mean, after disappearing from their lives for the last seven years, I've got a lot of catching up with my parents to do."

He turns to Repede who is still resting on Yuri's lap. "You know, why don't you adopt Repede? He lost his owners and father during the outbreak and since he likes you a lot, you can keep him." Flynn said to Yuri.

"Sure, I will." Yuri said with a smile as he continues rubbing Repede's back. "I'll be happy to accept Repede into my household."

"I want to stroke Repede too! I think he's cute!" Estelle cried. She tries to pet Repede on his head, but the dog turns to Estelle and growled while giving her a menacing glare. Estelle yelps as she backs away. She then hangs her head disappointingly and moaned, "He doesn't like me? I'm hurt…"

Yuri and the others simply laughed.

"Give him some time, Estelle." Yuri said as he pets Repede's head to calm him down. "I'm sure he'll accept you one day." He then turns to Hisca and Chastel. "What about you two?"

"Hisca and I are planning to open up a bookstore of our own after we return back to our hometown." Chastel said.

"And since Karol, Patty and Nan have no one to take care of them, Chastel and I have decided to adopt all of them." Hisca smiled as she wraps her arms around Karol, Patty and Nan.

"It's great to have you two as our guardians." Nan said to the twins gratefully as she, Karol and Patty hug Hisca back. Chastel smiled and she wraps her arms around her twin sister and the children, joining in their embrace.

"As for me, I'll return back to working as a surgeon when I get back to Houston." Rita said as she places her hands on both sides of her hip.

"And when I return to Honolulu, I'll search for a new job at another restaurant. And certainly this time one that isn't filled with infected." Judith said with a playful smirk.

"How's your shoulder now, Judith?" Yuri asked.

"The doctors have covered bandages over my wound so not to worry." Judith reassured.

"Finally for me, Estelle and I will work for the military a little longer to help create the vaccine for the Rosch virus." Raven said as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "After that, I'll quit the military too and find a new job, something simpler for an old guy like me. Maybe I'll be a postman, that ain't sound bad."

"Like Raven I said, I'll stay with the military for a while. But after that, I'll come find you and we'll be together again." Estelle said. Then, a small smile plasters across his face. "Besides, you still have a promise to keep."

Yuri nodded. "When we see other again, I'll rent _two_ ice cream shops. How about that?" Estelle chortled before rubbing Yuri's head affectionately. Yuri laughed as well.

After Estelle removes her hand from his head, Yuri took a good look at everyone present in the room with him. His mouth curved slightly into a blissful smile. "Everyone…all of you…you guys kept me alive back on the island…Thank you."

Everyone smiled back at him while Repede whined in response. Flynn nods his head before giving Yuri a gentle pat on his back. Rita chuckled as she places her hands behind her back.

"Wow. I've never been thanked personally before so…that's awesome of you, Yuri. You're welcome." Rita said with a sheepish grin as her cheeks slightly blush. Judith giggled as she wraps an arm around Rita.

Yuri turns back to Estelle and they both gaze into each other's eyes. Repede sees this and gets off of Yuri's lap and bed, allowing the two to have their personal moment with each other. Estelle gently places her hand onto Yuri's right shoulder. Yuri leans forward and places his left hand on the back of Estelle's neck.

Rita groans and shakes her head, knowing what the two are planning to do. Flynn, Judith, Raven and Chastel all laughed while Hisca make Karol, Nan and Patty turn around, preventing them for seeing the 'adult stuff' that is about to happen. Repede simply sat on the floor and whined as he silently watched the two.

* * *

Nolan enters the bridge of the ship where a few soldiers sat behind the controls and displays. He sees a woman, dressed in a tan-colored military uniform and a black military hat, standing at the left side of the room and staring out at the ocean through the glass windows. Nolan walks behind the soldiers and heads over to the woman.

"Good evening, boss." Nolan greeted her.

"Good evening, Captain Mathias. How are Yuri and Estelle?" The woman asked as she continued staring at the ocean.

"They're fine and recovering. Once Estelle recovers from her wound, we can begin the construction of the vaccine for the Rosch virus." Nolan said. He paused momentarily to let out a sigh. "At long last, we are finally going to eradicate that horrible virus. I never thought this day would ever come. Don't you, Colonel Farron?"

Colonel Claire 'Lightning' Farron smiled as she removes her hat, letting down her long pink hair. "I never thought so too, Nolan." She lifts her head up slightly and stare skyward. "You were right, Natsu. One day, we would find a cure."

Lightning closes her eyes and sighs blissfully.

"Thank God above for _Yuri Lowell_ and _Estellise Sidos Heurassein_."

* * *

"I love you, Yuri."

"I love you too, Estelle."

Yuri and Estelle then lean forward and kissed passionately into each other's lips.

At first, Yuri wondered to himself if everything he had been through was all worth it. But now, he knows that it is, because in the end, he did get his reward from Nolan. He never told him what it specifically was. But he already knew what it is.

A companion.

 _The End_

* * *

 **Sovereign: Thank you for reading this story. Thank you to everyone who have reviewed, favorited and followed this story. I really had a lot of fun writing this story and wow, after six years, I've finally finished the entire Zombie Paradise trilogy.**

 **I never thought I would ever accomplish that because after I've finished writing the second story, my interest in the zombie genre began to decline, to the point that I no longer have the inspiration to write the third story and held it off for six years.**

 **If it wasn't for my regained interest in anime and story-writing after watching** _ **'Your Name'**_ **and playing** _ **'Tales of Berseria'**_ **, I never would have got my butt back up to finally finish what I've held off doing for the last six years. XD And with that, I feel very happy and accomplished that I've finally completed the series.**

 **I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks again everyone and until next time, read and review!**


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